To Write History
by Guardonion
Summary: Once you fall down far enough, there is nowhere to go but upwards. It was a saying he'd heard once, but he hadn't ever imagined it would apply to him... He should just consider himself lucky that there can be no lower place to go than the literal hell itself.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

He had died in his bed.

He had been content, for as short as it was, it had been a life well lived.

There had been no loose ends for him to obsess over, no regrets to weigh him down when he'd breathed his last and closed his eyes for a final time. Not once had it crossed his mind that he would open them again, he'd refused to give himself a false hope of a miracle, not when he was getting weaker with every second while hacking up his lungs with intense coughs, not when he'd learned that accepting any sort of treatment would leave his family in poverty while he died anyway because his disease had been diagnosed too late for it to work.

There would be no miracle to cure this, and why would he be the one to receive it? If there were any gods out there, they clearly had more pressing matters to attend to than he...

He accepted that, and moved on from it to focus on finishing his life properly.

He should have remembered what his father had said when the news of his late diagnosis came to light, "Fate has a very warped sense of humor" he had said, and whoever was behind creating the concept was even more so, because it seemed that even in death he would not be left alone to his devices without something (or someone in this particular case as you might have guessed) making his existence a chore.

The next time he had opened his eyes had been somewhat of a pleasant shock, seeing as he had been alone when the sleep came and he would have liked at least someone to be by his side when he actually died. It had quickly turned into confusion when he realized that he was in a completely different room, and that confusion quickly turned to panic when he realized that the bed he was laying on were surrounded by giant bars.

As bad as that sounded, reality turned out to be far worse when he tried to collect himself and actually observe his situation. Because an attempt to call for help after he'd tricked himself into wishfully thinking he was on some kind of drug that affected his perception of things, revealed that he apparently was now a baby, who wasn't even old enough to make comprehensible sounds or even lift his arm without someone having to do it for him. He didn't know how long he'd lain there, trying to make sense of all of this before he finally gave up and let his panic take over.

He'd immediately started crying like a... Well, like a _baby_, a mixture of bottled up emotions that had been a product months in the making finally tipping over in a loud and ugly cry.

His cries were apparently loud enough for someone to rush into the room and immediately try to calm him down, which didn't help much given that her bodily picking him up and rocking him back and forth had only served to highlight just how helpless he was now and how it would be like this for a long time. He'd honestly felt bad for the woman trying to comfort him afterwards, he'd been like that for a long time while he found a myriad of reasons to cry about before eventually passing out.

He had been surprisingly calm after he woke up again, though he chalked that up to being too emotionally exhausted to even think. It didn't take long for him to fall unconscious again, and when he finally, _properly_ woke up, he was able to rein in his turbulent emotions before they got the better of him. Once rational thought reasserted itself in his mind, it didn't take long for him to think about the positives rather than the initial negatives he had before and actually start to relax.

Honestly, he'd even started to get a little excited with the possibilities, even though he had no idea how this happened and the best guess he had about it basically boiled down to 'someone screwed something up', but even that seemed to be in his favor. Sure he would have to spend a few months as a sack of bones at the mercy of whoever had been lucky (or unlucky, if you wanted to get into the details he would prefer not to think about) enough to have a reincarnated person as their child, and would probably have to spend a decade or so acting like a child if he didn't want to spend the first decade of his new life being considered a 'demon child' or whatever, but it beat dying of cancer at age twenty.

And his education would be a breeze at this rate, honestly he was seeing positives all around!

There was a question of where, when and who he was... It would all be revealed to him in time, but there would be problems attached to each answers. Where he was would determine if he would have to spend a significant amount of his time learning a completely different language and adjust to a whole different culture. He hoped 'when' would not be much of a factor, but he had never thought 'reincarnation' would be factor either so best to be cautious on that front lest he be caught off his guard when he really shouldn't be. Figuring out who he was was mostly about learning his new name and getting used to responding to it, and he was still a 'he' thankfully, as a quick shuffling around revealed, so he wouldn't have to get used to living a completely different life than before.

A quick look through the room and his memories could yield the 'when and where', so that's where he would begin, the 'who' would have to wait until he actually met someone without an emotional breakdown getting in his way.

Speaking of that... His memory of the woman who had came to confront him had been shaky, seeing as he had been under intense emotional turmoil at that time and could barely see through the tears in his eyes, but that fuzzy memory came with the distinct image of being pressed against an immaculate dark colored dress with a clear, light-colored apron, even with his undeveloped yes, he knew that to be the textbook image of what a Victorian Maid would wear, though that didn't mean he was in the Victorian Age exactly; seeing as maids were still a thing in his short life, it did mean his family rich enough to hire one (or multiple ones) though.

Him trying to observe the room was easier said than done though, given that couldn't exactly lift his neck or move his tiny body, and neither did he have a perfect twenty twenty vision with the still developing eyes of a baby. It didn't help that the things he could actually see were heavily obstructed beyond the thick bars of his crib, with him barely being able to make out the corner of a gaudy looking stool and a small dresser(?) situated right next to him.

All in all, there weren't a lot of answers to his questions at the moment, so the only thing he could do was wait until those answers presented themselves.

It didn't help that he was starting to feel really tired, not surprising...

Well, a little sleep wouldn't hurt.

* * *

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

_I should have known better than to hope for something too good to be true..._

Why was he like this you ask?

In short; his (former, and wasn't that a nice thought to think of in this situation?) father had once again been proven correct in saying that fate had a warped sense of humor, although he would go further and say that it had none to begin with, seeing as how it liked to get off on seeing him hitting new lows every goddamn time he opened his eyes and was greeted with his new life. And he wasn't exaggerating for the sake of being theatrical either, as much as he didn't like to think about the downsides of being a baby, he had nonetheless accepted them as something he would have to deal with until he fully completed his development. Like he had said before, it was a small price to pay for getting to live a new life while still retaining his identity.

So he didn't feel all that embarrassed when he cried to get someone's attention to get changed after waking up, and it didn't take long for his call to answered too, as luck would have it, there was a maid sitting just outside the corner of his vision who quickly got up and started to tend to him. He didn't know if it was the same woman from before, but trying to figure out if it was actually her was better than dwelling on the awkwardness of the situation.

Imagine his surprise when the woman tending to him just held his hand open, and the dresser he'd only spotted because it was just off the corner of his eye opened on its own and a new set of folded clothes just flew into her hand before closing down with a bang that had felt more sharp than it perhaps was as he tried to comprehend just what had happened.

He was in luck, (though whether that luck was good or bad was seriously in question at this particular moment) because he got an encore, seeing as it only took the woman a moment to cast a quick look at the door behind her as he started to levitate above of his crib with just a wave of her hand. A normal person in a situation like this may have already started to panic,seeing as he was suspended midair in the complete mercy of a stranger with even stranger capabilities clothed him while muttering about how easy it was to do it like this in a language he definitely knew wasn't English but understood perfectly anyway; but as things stood, his mind was too busy trying to rationalize what the hell just happened.

It didn't take him long to throw 'rationality' out of a window as he remembered just what kind of situation he was in.

_Magic_ was a conclusion he'd reached immediately after that.

Because _of course, _of course something had to happen to complicate his new life.

At least this magic was the kind of magic that was benevolent enough to give him some benefits before fucking him over, seeing as he didn't have to deal with the language barrier now, and that he had a pretty good possibility of learning it himself when he got older and explore just what it could do. The 'fucking over' part came with the fact that he would be defenseless to stop a force that probably anyone could use with ease given his current caretaker's flippancy with him. (on both counts, he was pretty sure this should be something illegal and he was just a single distraction away from falling to his death.)

But baby steps.

Literally _and _figuratively, funnily enough.

_I'm taking these news too well..._

Nothing to be done about it but move on and make your plans according to it.

He sighed as the woman lowered him down on the crib gently and started humming a song that immediately had his eyes droop with exhaustion. Sleep would claim him not long after that, but the sleep that would come from that would be anything but calm, as dreams of an uncertain future that was sure to make his life even more difficult started plaguing him instantly after closing his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2: Learn Your Place

Bit by bit, his new life was revealed to him.

The first thing he'd learned was his own name, 'Alaric', it was easy enough to adjust because of how unique it was and it sounded pleasing to his ear, so he gracefully accepted it. There was a complaint however in that it continued to muddy to waters as to his place of origin, if in fact he was still on 'Earth', -a valid concern, seeing as magic was a reality he had to deal with and a new world wouldn't be that much of a leap when one took his horrendous luck into account- it did well in eliminating more than half of the globe, but that still left a large chunk of the world ranging from Central Europe to North America.

The language his caretakers spoke wasn't helping either, even if the newly christened Alaric understood it perfectly, (and could even translate it to english by memory if he desired) it did nothing to help him narrow down the possible places he was in, which was another point to the theory that he was in a 'new world', he didn't know whether that was a good or bad thing, but he had a feeling it would depend on his luck.

Alaric was lucky existential dread was something he'd long gotten used to ignoring.

The next thing he'd learned was that he had been a sickly child from birth, too fragile to even be lifted from his bed and forcibly 'kept alive with the family magic'. The pair of gossiping maids (one of them being the one who was still very liberal with her use of levitation while dressing him whenever she was alone, tellingly enough) had also said that he had made an almost miraculous recovery in the span of a month and 'it was only a matter of time before he was introduced to society'.

He'd learned a lot from that by the time sleep claimed him again, most notably among them being the undeniable proof about his family and their status. While he still didn't know their names and if he was an only child or not, the pair of maids had made several mentions of familiar terms such as Prince and Princess when regarding them, coupled with less familiar ones such as the '72 Pillars' all denoted _some _sort of high ranking aristocratic origin. He didn't speculate much further than that, seeing as there was a lot of things he didn't know about yet and learning them was more important on speculating on things he already knew.

Aside from that, he'd also found a reason as to why all he'd seen whenever he was awake was this room. He had just recovered from what sounded like a very dangerous disease, which was the last thing he wanted to hear considering how _that_ ended last time and how a baby's body wasn't exactly the best when it came do dealing with diseases...

It had been a tremendous relief to find out that he was healed, and it gave Alaric newfound gratitude toward his new family. Even if he didn't know what 'family magic' was beyond the fact that it revealed to him that magic was not something hidden like it was in Harry Potter or something, he was grateful about it nonetheless and would make sure to pay them back someday when he got the chance.

Not having his new life ripped away from him without even getting the chance to live it was not something he'd take lightly.

The following weeks after that had been a blur, as he got used to his position as a baby enough to use his time productively and not suffer from the crippling boredom that came with constant inaction. He was starting to see his caretakers more and more frequently, and learning more and more information about his current living arrangements as time passed, even as their voices eventually became numerous enough to blend together, which made it harder to listen to their talks unless he focused hard enough.

One interesting tidbit that had been somewhat of a shock was learning that Alaric and his family wasn't living in the 'same estate', something that had to do with Alaric still being 'too weak'. It was a slightly terrifying thing to be informed of, seeing as he'd been noticing a buildup of pressure in his head corresponding with the increased amount of servants (it had stopped being 'just maids' eventually) and the numerous health checkups he had started receiving lately may just indicate something was wrong.

His only consolation was their lack of alarm concerning him. The numerous servants he saw whenever they were not taking care of his basic needs and checking on his health rarely ever got close to his crib, seemingly busy with something he could not discern from his position. In fact, he would even be glad to say that his health wasn't the reason for their frantic preparations if it wasn't for one little thing.

They were preparing for something, and he had a pretty good guess what exactly they were doing it for.

Any new details about his family still eluded him...

Was that on purpose? He didn't know, but he would be a fool to not see a correlation between his recovery from a (still unknown) sickness and a steady stream of increasing activity in his vicinity.

So he did the only thing he was capable of, waiting.

It wasn't long until he was proven correct...

* * *

_Gods... My head..._

It was a headache, so intense that it felt like someone had smashed a hammer right between his eyes, that had woke him up from his sleep. A headache so bad that it made it impossible for him to even think let alone open his eyes.

"We shouldn't be here," A woman, her soft voice laced with concern." "I knew he was not ready for this."

_Who..?_

"Calm yourself my dear, we are not going anywhere." A man this time, his gravelly voice void of the concern in the woman's voice. "The boy will be fine," Alaric felt a heavy and calloused hand settle on his temple, it was nothing more than a light caress, though he felt his headache ease somewhat which was a welcome relief even if he still couldn't find the strength to open his eyes.

"He's so silent."

"He's getting used to our presence," He felt the hand leave, though the pain remained the same this time. "Once he does he will begin to act more like a normal child."

_Were these his parents?_

"Will he ever? You know more about this than I do Ducard."

"Of course he will," The man said dismissively, as if it was a foregone conclusion. "The servants say he's been getting better day by day, and it isn't hard to see that they're right. It won't be long before he's fully able to acclimatize to the environment." A pair of hands settled on his body this time, this one was smaller but no less calloused. They lifted him from his bed and started rocking him back and forth.

"I just wish there was something I could do..."

_They seem nice..._

"I know you are antsy, but you aren't exactly suited for this..."

The rocking stopped. "Don't say it." There was a clear warning in her voice.

There was a slight clacking sound, before Alaric heard the man named Ducard huff out a chuckle, "_Of course,_ my dear."

_Heh..._

The headache was getting lighter, his eyes started to flutter open.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

The door opened, "Prince Vassago, there is message for you from the Great Lord Lucifer." His eyes opened, to be greeted with the face of a beautiful woman, who he instinctively knew to be his mother, with flowing black hair and piercing amber eyes looking at him with unrestrained emotion he might have returned had he not just heard what he heard.

_Vassago... Ars Goetia, A Prince of Hell._

_Great Lord Lucifer._

**_Morningstar..._**

He remembered reading the Lesser Key of Solomon, it had been the subject of a research paper he'd done right before the news of his cancer diagnosis came, and who wouldn't know Lucifer?

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the man that was his father, an imposing man with short black hair and eyes of gleaming emerald looking at him with an exasperated expression.

"Well, wouldn't want to keep the old lantern waiting..."

Alaric's mother tutted disapprovingly at his father, "You should be more respectful toward him. He's the son of the man who made all of this possible you know."

Ducard Vassago only rolled his eyes as a response, before turning his gaze toward him.

"Remember son, the life of a devil is never easy." He took a step closer and pecked his wife on the cheek, before smirking. "Remember that and you just might get further in life than old Rizevim and not coast on the fame of your old man..."

_Oh fuck..._


	3. Chapter 3: Know Yourself

_When I was reborn as a baby, I was hopeful, hopeful and grateful. I mean... How could I not be after finding out that I would be getting a new chance at life, when my previous one had been cut short through no fault of my own?_

_I will admit that being born as a Devil put a significant damper on those emotions. I was never a religious person, and my old family had never been ones to push it on their children, but everyone could understand why being reborn as the antithesis to everything that was 'good, just and righteous' was a bad thing. I look back in those days and could still remember how much fear I felt every time I opened my eyes and faced my new reality._

_And who could blame me? I do not, even after everything I've learned. It was a whole new world for me then, a whole new world to a person who'd tried to live his life as close to the ground as possible and had suddenly found himself in a world of magic filled with devils, angels and who knows what else, each vying for dominance._

_But fear had to give way to reality at some point, even finding out my new family being nobles that answered to the literal **Satan **wasn't going to change that, especially as I didn't want to spend my whole life rocking back and forth in a fetal position and hoping my problems would go away if I just didn't think about them. I knew better than to try the same tactic twice, especially one proven to be ineffective._

_So I decided to open my eyes, and try to look at everything from a rational perspective, purely because I believed there was something more to this_._ Because even if finding out that I was a Devil somewhat colored my perception on the things I'd observed before, it would not change the fact that what I would see with my own eyes would clash with what I thought the truth was._

_And that was exactly what happened, I noticed that not everything was fire and brimstones, that the land I saw when I was finally brought outside was not hell, but a lush landscape that had everything one would see in a landscape painting were it not for the purple sky that gave it an eerie feeling. I noticed that my parents were not the textbook images of demons that delighted in human suffering, and my caretakers weren't slaves that toiled under the iron fists of a pair of tyrants, but devils same as us, their only difference being that they were of lower birth, willingly serving under a pair of benevolent dictators that loved their newborn child enough to do everything in their power to make sure he lived._

_It didn't mean that everything was good, I would be a fool to admit that. These people were called Devils for a reason, the numerous deeds I would heard about as I got older reflected that in an extreme fashion. But no developing society started perfectly, even Rome itself had been built on fratricide and on the backs of hundreds of thousands of slaves. What mattered was that they would eventually leave behind their archaic ways and evolve into a better, **civilized** society as time passed, and I would be able to help them along that path once I got old enough to make a difference._

_Easier said than done, of course._

_This crazy new world played by different rules than my old one._

_But don't let me get ahead of myself._

_Believe it or not, the life of a baby was not all that interesting as one might imagine. Most of my time had passed with me listening for the barest hints of information from my caretakers whenever they felt talkative amongst each other, formulating a plan based on the information I learned and would later put into use as I reached adulthood. The rest was passed with me either sleeping or trying to stave off my boredom by rushing my development, both of them were about as fun as they sounded. Sleeping all the time got old when you were doing it all the time and trying to move when your limbs weren't strong enough to even grip something only led to wasted energy and enough frustration to drive a man insane._

_The only bright spot in those two years was being declared healthy enough to be brought out of my quarantine and into the place I would call home._

* * *

It had been a few weeks after that revelation that Alaric's parents decided he would be 'brought home'.

That had been a much needed time frankly, just to get himself to accept the fact that he was a _devil_, and make the best of it, because he would not be able to do anything to change it. The fact that he'd come out of it feeling _optimistic_ of all things was just a bonus.

His father had been the one to pick him up from his crib this time, and had carried him out onto a hallway where they would meet his mother, looking worried just like the last time he'd seen her. He couldn't focus on her for long though, before his father waved a hand and casually opened a portal in the middle of the hallway and stepped out into a frozen wasteland without saying so much as a word to her.

And when he said 'frozen wasteland' he meant it, from his position in his father's arms, all Alaric could see was a veritable tundra that stretched as far as the eye could see, dotted with numerous hills and the occasional dead tree. The only thing worth noting was how he didn't even feel the slightest bit of cold even though he was dressed in nothing but overly fancy baby clothes.

_Magic... It's really something isn't it?_

His eyes trailed up to sky, still unsettlingly purple, though he had to blink when he saw stars.

Yes, _stars_.

_In the Underworld?_

They dotted the sky with their countless numbers, each one looking like they were painstakingly put there one by one morphing the eerie atmosphere of the purple sky into that of an exotic and calm night sky. He would have ranked it among the most beautiful things he'd ever seen had he not believed that he would be seeing more and more beautiful views like this because.. well, _magic._

While Alaric was busy being fascinated by them, his parents had already walked enough distance that the tundra turned into a taiga. His mother fussing over him while his father rebuked her attempts to take Alaric away from his arms at every turn. The man insisted on 'sharing the moment with his son' it seemed, and 'she needed to stop treating him like glass'. Though it did nothing to stop his mother from worrying, ('Why didn't we just use the Gateway for the Castle?') it did more than enough to endear her to Alaric, who was strangely touched by her concern.

That wasn't to say he didn't appreciate his father's confidence in his strength though, he had enough bad memories with people treating him like he would break down immediately if he so much as breathed wrongly.

Eventually, his father would take a turn where the trees gave way to a rocky hill. Though the stones looked like they had been frozen for over a long time, it melted away as soon as his father's boots landed upon it. The hill was steep enough to give any unprepared climber pause, but his father, -joined by his mother soon after- would scale it in less than ten minutes.

He couldn't see it all of course, his father had secured him to his chest before starting his climb and had kept him there even after finishing it as he took a deep breath. The only thing Alaric could see being his chest and his coat flapping in the wind, which he couldn't feel at all.

His mother was silent as well, though he could hear her breathing off to the side, she was near.

Ducard Vassago would take a moment before slowly easing him off and lifting him to his eye level.

His face was stoic, though his eyes were sparking with emotion.

"I welcome you, Alaric Vassago. Like my father did for me, like I did for your sister, to _Adamant_."

Then he brought him closer, and turned him around.

It was a mountain.

A _colossal _mountain, so tall that one might think it could touch the stars, crowned with an actual Aurora Borealis. But that wasn't all, because someone had carved a fortress into it, a fortress that was almost as big as the mountain it was carved on, complete with towers, walls and turrets. Bigger than every castle that had been built in medieval Europe, something that wouldn't look out of place in a medieval fantasy, except it was right in front of him, and _real._

Alaric Vassago stood atop a hill, beholding the place he would be calling home from now on.

And he _laughed._

_Because he felt like he had just started living again..._

* * *

**End of Prologue**

**Next Chapter will have a timeskip, beware.**


	4. Chapter 4: The Early Years

_An Analysis Into the Behavior of a Child Who Was Anything But a Child..._

Acting the part of a child was hard.

It required impeccable situational and social awareness, lest one invite unwanted suspicion and potentially compromising questions being asked about themselves, it _required_ constant focus, the ability to maintain the act at all times when under the gaze of one's family and caretakers, to orchestrate every move in a way that would invite the least amount of distraction.

It also required a certain level of skill in acting of course! Especially if one hoped to deceive centuries old beings that had been dealing with politics longer than some nations existed, along with a godly amount of patience, because you were going to have to act like a child for a whole decade if you didn't want people to question just why you were such an early developing child.

Alaric Vassago had never been a patient person, being stuck in the body of a baby while being unable to do anything by himself for almost a whole year had only exacerbated that particular issue, so much so that he couldn't even find it in himself to sit idly for a few seconds without getting jittery and thinking about all the more productive things he could be doing.

It didn't help that he had never been the most extroverted person to begin with, his social group limited to a small core of friends and family members. Though he was mostly able to maneuver around his family due to them being mostly busy with their own duties, reading and manipulating the mood of a constant stream of ever-changing caretakers, tutors and servants he had to spend a majority of his time with when he had so little talent in it sometimes made him wish to go back to the crushing boredom of being a baby again.

Thankfully, there was a saving grace in this whole ordeal.

It simply boiled down to Devil children being beholden to different standards than human ones. Children of the Devil Aristocracy, and especially those belonging to the Pillar Clans were another league of standards on its own. Naturally, that meant tutoring, as soon as he was able to walk without falling ass over tea-kettle every third step and speak in complete sentences. It wouldn't do for the Pillars of Devil Society to fall behind those who they had deemed as their lessers after all.

Though he didn't think anybody expected a child to embrace his education so thoroughly, not at the rate that he did at least. There had been a time where he had been praised as a prodigy simply because he had breezed through what he already knew in record time, and it helped him get away from the constant surveillance on his person as people generally assumed he was studying in the library.

He'd used that time productively of course, his family had access to a priceless well of information that he was certain would serve him well in the future. So he'd buried his head in history books and learned the history of his species and those of the 'Three Factions' (Angels and Devils, along with a group called the Fallen Angels led by Azazel, the 'Scapegoat') who had fought in a cataclysmic conflict that ended just six decades ago.

Another thing he'd learned, was the nature of this world and just how myth-like those countless mythologies around the whole world were... That had almost been worth a small heart attack on its own, especially considering that most of those gods were the worst kind of 'people'. Aside from that, there had been nothing stopping him from researching just how magic worked and how he could learn to use it.

Imagination had been a key word.

So he'd put his into use.

This whole ordeal was happening at a time that various people had started feeling concerned about him, understandable given how he had spend almost all of the time not spent with his family locked away in a library for a whole year and counting. His lack of interaction with everyone but his family and tutors, and his tendency to avoid his caretakers was noted and there had been numerous tries to fix that, which had the unintended side effect of starting his magic training early.

So he'd decided to act like a petulant child, and refused to be forced into something he didn't want to do. He'd started hiding from them whenever they decided to force him into situation outside of his comfort zone. Blending himself into the background like a chameleon and enhancing the capacity of his ears even further than their already supernatural limits to listen for any unwanted arrivals, when they failed in the face of superior experience, he would simply start running as fast as he could while channeling all of his power into going as fast as possible.

This also led him to experiment with his wings, which could produce some... _Interesting _results in the future_._

It had been intoxicating, learning how to manipulate his 'demonic energy' and get it to bend to the whims of his imagination, increasing strength whenever he exerted himself. It had only taken a year for those actions to start becoming second nature and turn Alaric into a blur only his parents and the most senior of the staff could catch. As effortless as the former made it out to be, Alaric felt pride in developing this newly discovered 'muscle'.

When he'd turned his attention to a more offensive outlook, a natural process simply born out of a desire to protect himself given what kind of world he was in and the nature of his own kind, it had almost been like a switch had been flipped, and the eyes of his parents had been fixed on him, waiting for... something. He'd started seeing them more and more, and they made a point of stopping anyone from getting in the way of his training.

He had a pretty good guess about just what they were waiting for, given that each Pillar family had a bloodline power unique to their bloodline and he had yet to display any signs of discovering his Dominion of Spirits, the power of the Princely House of Vassago that gave them tremendous affinity over the field of spiritual magic. It was the thing that had saved his life, and he would be lying if he didn't say he didn't have some interest in just how it had been accomplished. Though he was willing to wait, he knew from his research that he had a higher chance of unlocking it the more older he got.

So he put it out of his mind and got to training harder, thinking that he would unlock it when the time was right.

* * *

_Discovering What You Can Do With Something Completely New_

Magical Combat.

It was an entirely foreign concept to one such as Alaric, whose entire experience with 'combat' included a brief period where he took up boxing that ended with him in the hospital after passing out from excessive coughing one day.

One generally expected a set of rules to abide by while training to the best of their abilities and maximize their potential, those rules would be what set apart the ones who tried to bludgeon their enemies to the ground like a caveman with every method they could get their hands on regardless of their lack of talent, from those who would ascend to be true masters of their 'Martial Arts', ranging from the greatest ancient wrestlers to the deadliest of modern sharpshooters.

But there was no 'Martial Art' when it came to magic, no set of rules to tell you what you could and could not do when you were a Devil, the only restriction was a 'Mana Bar' that had an initial amount determined by how powerful your bloodline was and developed more as you used it.

Sure there was plenty of other disciplines one could look to if they really wanted to tie themselves to an established system. Humans had access to a somewhat reliable magic system thanks to the brilliance of Merlin if they wished to not bind their power to the whims of fickle gods. While the Youkai in the east had access to the power called Senjutsu, which allowed one to harness the power of one's own life to its fullest potential.

But none of them were attractive choices to Alaric, seeing as they both had significant drawbacks that would prove fatal to a person in his position. The Merlin System simply couldn't match the growth rate of Devil Magic and Senjutsu required a significant amount of time to train if he didn't want to cause irreparable harm to his own soul and he neither had the time nor the patience to deal with that without unlocking his Dominion of Spirits.

And considering that he really didn't want to shackle his life to any Gods or search for an obscure style and waste valuable time, he would have to make like the Devil he was and go along his own magical path.

But he chose a rather different way of going about it. Using the speed he'd been cultivating for years and mixing it with a plethora of fast-paced and precise offensive spells designed to give his opponent no quarter while he battered them to submission, all the while wrapping himself up in numerous protections to make sure anything fast enough to catch him with his speed didn't cause debilitating harm.

His father had said that it was a rather unorthodox path when he went ask for his opinion on the matter, seeing as most Devils (both now and before) would prefer to focus on what caused the biggest explosion rather than think about what harm their opponents could cause. Alaric had not minced words when he'd said that there was a reason when the Devils once counted only in the billions could now barely keep themselves above two million, it was natural selection at it's finest.

It was a rather stupid slip-up in hindsight, but he was met with a morose agreement instead of scrutiny, thus gaining the approval of his family in pursuing his chosen discipline.

So Alaric started the his combat training at the age of five, and forced his body to go as far as it could go in the path of making himself stronger for months on end under the watch of his family, and none could deny that it had some excellent results. In just two years he'd gotten strong enough to hold his own for longer against his more experienced sparring tutors, while being able to run circles around them most of the time, get more proficient in evading the blows sent his way while enduring better those that he couldn't dodge entirely.

Most of them predicted that he would surpass them before he reached ten years of age, while his parents believed that he could be among the most strongest Devils of his generation if he kept it up.

Those words only stoked his newfound ambition, as through his continued studies, he learned more and more about how his society worked and therefore developed ideas on how he could improve it. He knew that Devils only listened to someone when that person proved they could kill them in many ways without them being able to do anything to stop them, and nowhere was this truer than at the very top where even the descendants of Four Satans struggled among each other to prove that they were still the strongest among their kind after the death of their sires.

But he still had a way to go before he could even enter that struggle for power. He wasn't the heir for his family for one, that honor belonging to his elder sister by three decades: Eneely Vassago, currently residing in their family's estate in Lucifaad, capital of the Devil 'Nation' and acting as proxy for his father in his absence. That meant that unless he decided to usurp his sister's position, -which he really didn't- he would only be able to bring the changes he desired after getting much, _much_ stronger.

What put a significant hamper on that development was the fact that his parents refused to let him outside of the Vassago lands until he unlocked the power of his bloodline, a request from his mother after she'd so puzzlingly said that he needed every advantage he could get in the den of vipers that was Lucifaad, something that his father had wholeheartedly supported.

Alaric had discovered why a few weeks after his eighth birthday, when during a particularly grueling training session against more than a few opponents who had him on the edge of defeat, something in him would snap and he would lash out with a blast of blinding power that would blast the arm of one of his opponents clean off and leave nothing but empty air that smelled of burnt meat.

A peculiar oddity, seeing as nothing in his arsenal had that capability.

When his parents had finally managed to calm him down after he'd rightfully flipped the fuck out, was that he had finally unlocked it.

It wasn't the Dominion of Spirits however, he'd unlocked the power called 'Star Shaper' the power belonging to the House of Orias, inherited from his Alaric's mother, Davinia Vassago, née Orias. It granted one the ability to control what made a star, and all the implications that came with it. It was a Power incredible in it's scope, yet it was also a dangerous one, one that posed catastrophic danger to the one who used it if not controlled correctly.

But he needn't worry about that fact, because he had someone who'd mastered that power as a willing teacher. Years later he would still remember the look of pride on his mother's face when she declared that she would be the only one to oversee his training from now on, while his father remarked that he couldn't wait to see 'What he would do with it'...

The years would see to it that he would need everything that power brought with it, because when Alaric Vassago first left the lands of his family at age 8, he never could have predicted the events that would be set in motion...


	5. Chapter 5: Home of the Damned

He had missed civilization.

He had almost forgotten what it looked like, living in Adamant, the only people he saw being either a servant or a soldier going about their duties in a way that made them blend into the background like lifeless ornaments to him. The same thing went for what few scattered townlings that dotted the lands of his family, a depressing sight only exacerbated by the frozen wasteland it stood upon.

It was why he had been shocked when he stepped through the Gateway and out into what genuinely looked like something one would see inside of a huge Gothic Cathedral. Stained glass windows leaning more towards the darker tones in color while still managing to radiate light in a puzzling way, grand pillars that somehow managed to look strong yet elegant at the same time, complete with decorations such as paintings on higher surfaces and vicious engravings on pillars all depicting scenes of war and glory in the place of the obvious lack of holy imagery.

He remembered his father telling him that the Gateway led to their family's estate on Lucifaad, he had not expected much and didn't think much of the news, his belief being that his parents enjoyed the simpler things in life. Simple for a Devil anyway, given that they lived in a giant fortress that still managed to look somewhat dull after a long enough time despite being a _giant fortress._

Needless to say, this was enough to make him change his mind as he stared at the scene before him with open fascination, though he was quick to school his features back to a neutral one when he peeked behind his father to see that they were being greeted.

She was a woman, a tall and _very_ well developed one who looked to be in her twenties, though that was debatable, given that Devils aged much _much _slower, an example being his parents, both of whom didn't look a day over thirty while being over a millennium old. Her hair was a midnight black that reached past her hips and her eyes were twin pools of dark green.

It didn't take long for him to make the connection that this woman was his sister, especially when she was very reluctantly pulled into a hug by their mother, highlighting the eerie similarity of the pair even for mother and daughter. Seriously, the only thing that she inherited from their father was her eyes.

He didn't have time to contemplate that fact for long however, with his sister sharing only a brief nod of greeting with their father before finally kneeling down to his eye level and examined him slowly with the barest hint of a smile on her lips.

"You must be Alaric, my little brother." She said, her green eyes meeting his own amber orbs, "I am glad that I finally get to meet you." Her tone didn't sound all that genuine, though he hated to judge a member of his own family without them even making a significant impression, the fact remained that Devil politics made even Feudal politics look like mere schoolyard gossip in comparison and she would be somewhat justified in thinking that he might be a threat.

He didn't exactly appreciate what being labeled as a threat might do to him in a place like this, so he just nodded, preferring to stay silent and decide on how best to approach her when he had a better idea on just what kind of person his sister was.

"My name is Eneely, as you must know." He did, one would have to be a special kind of neglectful to not know the name of their future liege, though there were not a lot of information on just what kind of a person she was, which he had deduced to be a deliberate attempt by someone to catch him off his guard, and he had a feeling that this was why.

He nodded, "I do too, sister."

She actually smiled this time, "I've heard so much about you." He didn't know something that actually sounded so normal could feel so ominous, "From what our dear parents say, you are a prodigy, I look forward to seeing it for myself."

_Ah, there it is._

That was a challenge, something he would be a fool to back down from.

It was a blatant one too, seeing as he felt a slow spike of power start to slowly building up in the room, coming directly in her direction. It made his mother tense and put a hand on his shoulder, he imagined that she was currently leveling one of her impressive glares at her wayward daughter, who was trying to see if he would back down when she unleashed her power, owing to the fact that just 8 years ago he was at the risk of dying from just a brief spike of power from his mother's presence during childbirth.

She would be sorely disappointed if she expected him to back down though, he had been beating back that unknown sickness while he was still an infant, and the last vestiges of what remained had been easily overcome after he'd adapted to being in the presence of the most brutal of teachers he was calling his mother when she frequently demonstrated the level of her power by _melting_ entire mountains.

The days where even a group of devils standing together might cause give him a headache had been nothing more than a small obstacle he had no trouble overcoming, and if she thought she could get him to capitulate over it, than she was dead wrong.

And he was determined to prove it, squaring his shoulders and looking her straight in the eyes as he unleashed his own power, enjoying how her eyes widened slightly. While it was still nowhere near close enough to compete with Eneely, who had more than thirty years on him in terms of experience, it was enough to prove that Alaric was ready to meet any challenges against to prove his strength.

"And I look forward to exceeding your expectations, _dear_ sister."

It was terse, and maybe a tad more confrontational than he usually acted, but it was something he'd quickly learned was normal behavior for Devils children, who generally needed to be put down a peg or two before they learned what the concept of self-preservation actually was.

It did mean that he was in for a very painful sparring session, but he felt that he was used to those by now and the fact that it would help him just how powerful his sister was, especially if she decided to underestimate him as just a simple child too caught up in his own hype.

"_Later_."

It was the rare sternness in the voice of their mother who ended their 'conversation', though he had a feeling it was more of a confrontation than anything else. He was right in assuming that she was glaring at Eneely, but he was glad to note that it was one of chastisement in the face of inappropriate behavior, not the outright anger of a mother who worried that their child might get hurt.

It didn't mean that she didn't worry of course, he knew his mother too well to ever believe that.

He was grateful for it all the same.

It certainly succeeded in getting his sister to withdraw her presence immediately, rising to her feet from her crouched position and turning to her mother without a moment's pause, the smile remained on her face as she opened her arms and closed the distance between them, their arms closing around each other as the mother embraced her child, instantly putting an end to the tense environment.

It was Eneely broke the silence, breaking away from the hug. "I am glad to see you are well mother." She said, turning around and beckoning a pair of servants who had been waiting at the wings the moment Alaric's father had left the room while he and his sister was having their little chat. At her little gesture, one of them handed a rolled up scroll to her mother, "A letter from your mother arrived just before you, probably to talk to you about Alaric."

"She hasn't stopped pestering me about it for months, I am not surprised." She took the letter with a roll of her eyes, following her daughter out of the giant _entrance _room with Alaric in tow, having fallen into the background as quiet children were inclined to do when adults went about their business even if the subject of the matter was apparently about him.

"For what I wonder? She has an heir already..."

"She's suspicious about Ducard as always, you know she never approved the match between us, I remember how angry she was the moment grandfather proposed it."

"Angry enough to lash out at Orias himself?" His sister sounded incredulous, he certainly felt so.

"Oh no, certainly not." His mother said dismissively. "She wouldn't dare, even if it meant she had to try for another child with that spineless cuckold of hers." Wouldn't that 'spineless cuckold' be her father? Well that certainly gave him a hunch as to why his mother avoided speaking about her family.

Her sister just shook her head, "You should return her letters all the same, I don't need her to melting the doors down again."

"Maybe later." His mother said in a tone of voice that made it clear that she preferred 'later' to be 'never', drawing a sigh from his sister and making him take a mental note about approaching any future meeting with his grandmother carefully, careful enough to have multiple witnesses and a quick way out if push came to shove. "Is Iolava here?"

Eneely shook her head, "He's with his family, I've already told father that he apologizes for not being able to greet you." Much to his surprise, she directed a genuine smile towards him, "He looked forward to meeting with you." Was it normal for one to have his sister's husband attention? He sure hoped so.

He made sure to return her smile with a small one of his own as he nodded in answer.

Her mother made a dismissive gesture with her hand as she turned the corner. "Oh, tell him not to worry about it, but make sure he knows that we would very much like to see him tomorrow."

"No trouble I hope?" His sister asked with a raised brow.

"We will be hosting Duke Astaroth and his family, your father wanted to talk to him about some of the things he saw on the reports you've sent him." He knew that Astaroth's had a child about his age, along with the fact that the House Vassago and them enjoyed good relations with each other, and it was expected of him to make friends with them.

He resolved to spend more time training before the time came just to make sure he was ready.

"I'll let him know," She brought them to a full stop at the head of a flight of stairs, "Is there anything else?"

"Nothing dear, I'll show Alaric to his room and you can go about your business."

His sister nodded, "Thank you mother, I'll see you at supper." She nodded to him and left from the way they came from, finally disappearing around the corner as him and his mother started their climb.

"I don't know what to feel about her." He said bluntly.

"That little display from earlier?" She asked, continuing when he nodded, "You needn't worry about that, Eneely was just testing if you were worth the talk she'd kept hearing about." It didn't put him at ease, but it did confirm his previous thoughts on the subject.

"Did I make it worse by not backing down?"

"I don't believe so, not yet."

That wasn't a comfort either, he didn't know if he appreciated how blunt his mother was being right now. "How do I make sure she doesn't see me as a threat?"

His mother raised a brow, "She's your sister Al, she's not going to do anything to you." A hand landed on his hair and started ruffling his black locks, he bore the indignity without raising a single complaint "Your father would put a stop to it if she was serious. As it stands, she's just trying to prepare you for Lucifaad."

"There are better methods." He grumbled.

"Yes, there are."

And that was the end of it, his mother would bring him to his room and inform him that he wasn't needed for anything for the rest of the day and that he was free to explore the 'estate' as he wished and left him to his devices.

He would spend a few minutes arranging his room to his liking, and leaving it immediately after he was done in search of a training area, finding it without much trouble thanks to a lucky meeting with one of the servants who was kind enough to take a break from his duties and lead him there.

He was met with... Utopia.

It wasn't an exaggeration born out of obsession with training either, his parents decided to put the training area on the roof of their gigantic estate, the estate perched upon a cliff that overlooked the city of Lucifaad and offered a mesmerizing view of it.

It was simply, the greatest thing he'd seen.

It stretched as far as the eye could see, imposing statues and numerous works of art dotted a road made out of shining black stone. Covered with towers that put even _skyscrapers _to shame, colossal estates just like the one he was in made the normal houses that dotted around them look like hovels in comparison when those 'hovels' would be compared to mansions out on the surface.

It was so overwhelming that he couldn't even focus on each separate detail...

He had to turn around.

When he turned around again, it was to examine the training room with a single purpose.

It didn't take long for him to find it.

His hands closed around a bow that was as tall as he was, and grabbed a few arrows before turning toward _marvelous metropolis that made anything the humans did look insignificant in comparison _and knocked one of the arrows on the bow.

Why was he using an archaic weapon when he had an entire magic arsenal at his disposal you ask?

The answer was simple, focus training.

His mother had drilled into his head numerous times that one needed perfect focus if they were to master Star Shaper, and he couldn't find a better way to train his focus than trying to hit a bulls-eye when there was such a mesmerizing view in the background.

The first arrow missed the target by such a margin that it violently bounced off of an enchanted pillar before clattering to the ground.

...

He needed a lot more training...

And a new bow.


	6. Chapter 6: Supernaturally Smart

A whole day passed with Alaric trying various ways to improve his focus, and it wasn't until midnight that his mother forcefully extracted him from a room with various broken weapons that his day finally end and he was forced to sleep with the threat of a training ban hanging over his head had he not complied.

He'd had not choice but to sleep the night away, his dreamless sleep coming with the tune of him lamenting about all the useful things he could be doing instead of it. Awakening had been a different torture, seeing as he'd not had the most productive sleeping cycle and seeing as he didn't exactly have access to an alarm clock, he was completely subject to his mothers... tender mercies.

It was every bit as horrible as it sounded, that being paired with him trying to wrestle on a set of fancy clothes while simultaneously trying to ward off a pack of maids who thought they should be the ones to actually dress Alaric instead of Alaric dressing himself like a normal person, made sure that his day had an _awesome _start.

He'd barely been able to get himself to a presentable state of mind when he finally took his place next to his father's side, barely noticing the man glued to his sister's side whom he guessed was his good-brother give him a wave and returning it hastily as his father gave him a reassuring pat on the back.

It didn't take long for a glowing circle to appear on the middle of the same gigantic hall Alaric and his parents had entered in yesterday, growing in size until it was big enough for three people to appear from.

His father was the first to act, withdrawing his hand from Alaric's shoulder and walking forward to greet his guests. Alaric's eyes were glued to the scene, it being his first time observing the intricacies of Devil Etiquette instead of reading it out of a book.

"Duke Kalgan." He said, extending his hand toward his colleague-in-station. "I welcome you, and your family to our Estate."

"Prince Ducard." The green haired man responded as he reciprocated the handshake with a respectful nod. The handshake lasted only a couple of seconds before they broke off, "We thank you for your hospitality." With that ceremony out of the way the other greetings would be much less formal.

The only thing of note he'd observed was his sister receiving a small gift in the form of a luminescent vial of blue liquid from the Lady Astaroth that caused more than a little laughter between her and his mother, he had a pretty good notion on what it was judging by how red his sister's face had gotten, not to mention the... fairly pathetic and _fucking unsettling_ way look that spread through his good-brother's face.

Alaric didn't know what his sister saw in him, but he also hated to judge someone before fully knowing them, (and a minuscule amount of minutes didn't count) especially seeing as the one time he'd did that he'd been proven entirely wrong. He'd reserve judgement and act accordingly if the worst came to pass.

Also preferably when he actually knows what kind of person his sister is.

He is broken out of his reverie when his father's hand lands on his shoulder, "And this is my son, Alaric." He looks up to see that his father is once again addressing Duke Astaroth, "It's his first time in the capital, as I'm sure you've noticed."

"Ah, the prodigy you kept telling me about..." The man says, he beckons his own son (who practically looked like a mirror-image-to-be of his father) over, who looked to be quite content staying at the back while everyone was talking. "It is quite nice to meet you," The man sounded dismissive while talking to him, though he didn't think anyone would extend the courtesies of an adult to a child.

That was fine by him anyway, "Thank you Lord Astaroth."

"My son, Ajuka," He said, slightly nudging the boy on his shoulder. "I'm sure you'll get along well, you have quite a lot of common interests from what Ducard tells me." Alaric thought that he really should talk to his father about the things he's said to other people about him.

Setting that thought aside for now, he turned to Ajuka Astaroth, taking the initiative and extending his hand first as their fathers slowly left them alone to their devices, like adults were wont to do. It took a moment for the boy to shake his hand, and even when he did there was a glaring lack of conversation between the two of them.

But that was understandable if one considered just what kind of person the boy across from him was.

He had done his research on Pillar children his age of course, as doing any less would be a great folly considering the current political climate, even among young devils. He knew that the boy was a social recluse like him, though far less isolated given that he had managed to strike up a close friendship with the Gremory Heir (who sounded like a terrifying social butterfly) and significantly smarter than Alaric if the rumors he'd about Ajuka writing several books of his own were correct.

That was about the extent of his knowledge, given that his only source of information was his father, mother, and several servants who had access to gossip from Lucifaad he didn't have, and his research for information had not been limited to a single person.

Though he could see that the information was correct, given that they were, for several minutes; still maintaining the silence that had descended upon them the moment their respective families had abandoned the room altogether.

The most awkward thing about the affair was that the stoic expression on the boys face had not even changed, despite his own developing into an awkward grimace.

_I need to put an end to this before plants starts growing on top of us._

He chose a diplomatic approach. "So... I take it you are well?"

"...Yes."

_This is awkward._

"That's... great."

_This is terrible..._

His only answer was a slow nod, though he could have sworn that Ajuka's eyebrow had risen even higher when he wasn't looking at it.

He needed to change his approach, or they were going to be here forever and he didn't know how much of this he could handle. "Is there anything in particular you wanted to do?" He said, though he couldn't help but add a small jab to alleviate the awkwardness that was weighing him down, "Unless you want us to stand there until the feast."

There went that eyebrow again, how a boy twenty years his junior made him feel like the child he wasn't on the inside was beyond him, but at least he would be answering his question. "I would like to see your library."

"Perfect!" He hadn't had the chance to take a look around because of all the haste surrounding the visit, this would be the perfect opportunity. "Just follow me." He'd caught a glimpse of where it was when his mother was dragging him to his bed.

"Alright."

* * *

Breaking the ice had been a challenge to say the least, but it had happened. In that process, he'd learned that anything Kalgan Astaroth could say about his son when it comes to the extent of his ability would have been a huge understatement.

It was quite terrifying actually.

Terrifying, but also... "Fascinating..." Even that was an understatement, especially when the boy had just used a pen and paper to produce a series of mathematical calculations centuries ahead of its time with trivial effort while also talking to him about how it all worked. "This makes the Merlin System look like cheap parlor tricks in comparison..."

The boy who was sitting across from him just nodded, his head still hidden beneath a thick tome. "He tried to replicate the demonic energy inherent in our kind and produced a significantly weaker discipline of magic." He said as he turned a page that was almost as wide as his torso, "I correctly theorized that the original source of magic, especially with its lack of limitations, could use the fundamental source of understanding one's universe with unlimited potential."

As if he needed a cause to be more afraid. He wondered if the child in front of him was on the path to become the smartest being in the universe, especially when his potential lifespan was put into consideration.

"You are quiet."

Oh.

He looked up from his notes to see that Ajuka was looking at him with his usual stoic expression, though he could swear his blue eyes seemed somewhat sharper.

He just shrugged, "The two of us aren't exactly great conversationalists." He was quite sure there was a test going on, why else would the boy initiate a conversation after letting him do all the work for it in the previous hour.

"Yes, but you kept trying all the same." Until he found what stuck, that was correct, "Why stop?"

Well... "It's quite obvious, I would think."

"Yes, it is." Ajuka said, "Though many would be incapable of understanding the things I just showed you, even with me explaining it to them."

"Yet you did not." He finished, "You seem to have a slight understanding of the topic."

Yes, slight understanding would be correct, as math had never been his strong suit.

"It is not my area of expertise," Alaric said, somewhat sheepishly. Having spent his years learning everything he could about how this world worked had put a hamper on his studies into different fields.

Ajuka nodded, "That is understandable." With that, he went back to his reading, leaving Alaric to his own devices.

The silence that had descended between them had not been the same uncomfortable one of since hours prior, though it could not exactly be called companionable, it was certainly an improvement.

Both boys would spend their moments in silence buried in one book or another, continuing until a servant approached them to inform them about the feast.

As they were heading down Ajuka initiated a conversation one final time, "Since you are new to the capital, I suppose I should tell you about the gathering that's going to take place one week from now."

"It will only involve a few pillar children, and is hosted in the Gremory compound. Since Sirzechs is a friend of mine, he would not mind if I invited someone else."

Huh... "Thank you, I will bring it up with my family."

His family would approve of course, and he would finally receive his own entrance into the limelight...

_That was easier than I thought..._


	7. Chapter 7: A Week of Learning

He'd made a mistake.

"-should see Lord Beelzebub's Harem! Such a beautiful collection."

_He'd made a huge mistake_.

"Your mother might say you're too young to learn of this stuff!" Said the... _man_ whose entire existence made Alaric wish he was still suffering the maddening boredom that was being a baby, instead of suffering the torture of sitting next to him for as long as he had, "But take it from someone who has experience, it's important to start early!"

Those last words were accompanied by a hearty slap to his back, which made him throw a venomous glare at the pitiful person who he had the misfortune of calling his goodbrother, he would only manage to force it to a painful smile when the slime calmed down from the laughing fit he'd went into after making his joke.

He shot a look at the person sitting across from him, a plea for help that would be obvious to anyone just written in his eyes. Though any hope for salvation would soon be dashed when Ajuka Astaroth would just shake his head at him while calmly continuing to eat his meal, the message that simple gesture conveyed was enough to make him despair.

_You brought this in yourself, now deal with it._

He certainly had, when he'd naively assumed his goodbrother was someone he'd actually wanted to get to know. Seeing the feast that would finalize the visit of Duke Astaroth and his family as a perfect opportunity and inviting him to seat with he and Ajuka once they were both summoned to the feast. That decision quickly became one he would regret, when Iolava Amon decided that it was a great idea to launch into a tirade about his sexual exploits five minutes after the introductions were out of the way.

"-Just yesterday I saw a beautiful little minx in the Market! The fun I would have had if my brother-"

He cursed himself for not realizing just why exactly his family were so eager to agree to his suggestion, his sister had gone as for to suggest that they be served their meals in another room!

There wasn't even any respite, the man had only taken both Alaric's and Ajuka's shared silent natures as encouragement and had never once stopped talking about his proclivities.

"Don't take this the wrong way Al! I love your sister with all my heart, but a man has needs. She certainly agrees..." He would say finally, making Alaric breathe a huge sigh of relief as he saw a servant coming to inform them that the time had come for the Astaroth's to depart and that his torture would finally end.

Needless to say, this whole affair was enough for Alaric to form a strong opinion on the person he had the misfortune of calling his goodbrother. He would only congratulate his sister on acquiring such a perfectly controllable pawn who wouldn't get in the way of her ambitions, and gladly refrain from talking to him ever again if he could afford the opportunity to do so.

Whether it was affordable or not depended entirely on just what he was capable of when it came to combat. Should the existence of Devil Politics turn he and his sister into enemies down the road, Alaric could not afford to be ignorant of Iolava's strength, even if he was doing his damnedest to make sure Alaric would never be able to take him seriously.

The only good thing that had come out of it was that Ajuka did not retract his invitation like he feared he would, after Alaric had unknowingly doomed them to an hour's worth of torture. He would even inform him that he was used to it, in a manner that made Alaric ponder if he was joking or not.

As soon as they had departed, he'd immediately asked leave from his parents and made a beeline for the training room, he'd needed to let off some steam.

* * *

_Two Days Later, Upper Market District, Lucifaad._

Once again, he was reminded why Devils were different.

It was different when one was reading it from a book, the factual manner in which most history books that dealt with the exploits of his kind often glossed over them by simply having been written by Devils, who didn't see anything wrong with what they were doing.

Case in point, one of the more despicable facts about the Great War that the Devil Army was a disorganized mess, and it would often lead to numbers as high as millions breaking off from the Main Host and going on a rampage through the Eurasian Continent. The sheer number of most of these hordes would often mean that their raiding parties would go unopposed, leaving a trail of destruction wherever they went.

When the War finally began to wind down, the leaders of these raiding parties were quick to notice and start their retreat back to the Underworld. They brought their spoils to the Underworld, the most prominent among them being the vast amount of humans they had forcefully taken from their homes.

Fast forward for a few generations, and now the descendants of those humans were a common sight among the cities of the Underworld, with most of their numbers concentrated in Lucifaad, where

And these were the lucky ones; because they weren't being stuffed into chattels in groups of thousand on the outskirts of the city, being sold as a group for those rich enough to afford them, only to be stuffed into a mine, a farm, or just a simple labor camp where they would be worked to death.

He didn't even want to know just how they were keeping up with the demand for numbers...

_I'll change that, I **will.**_

It was impossible to say that without acknowledging the sinking feeling in his gut, it came with the crushing knowledge that these people weren't even going to live to see that day.

A hand landed on his shoulder, snapping him out of his reverie and almost causing him to lash out had it not been for the voice that accompanied it.

"_Son._"

It was his father.

One would have to look very deep to see the sign of concern on his face, "You've stopped." But it was there, even though the man maintained an almost perfect image of indifference at all times, Alaric was half-certain that it was his father's unique brand of magic.

"Is something troubling you?"

"Ah..." _Yes! _He wanted to say, but he didn't get to where he was by acting on flawed instinct, "I apologize father, I was looking at the..." He tried desperately to find a neutral term that wouldn't draw suspicion, but his brain was making that pretty hard for him by supplying what would otherwise be perfectly appropriate words for such a repulsive thing, "...I was looking at the stalls." He eventually settled. "We don't have them at home."

His father would follow his gaze for a moment before nodding, "You need not apologize." He said, putting a hand on his back and easily steering him through their trek Market District, they were given a very wide berth. "And you need not hide your contempt for it either," He said after a moment's pause, "It is a sordid affair for many of the Pillars, but it is a necessity."

Alaric just sighed, unwilling to argue a point about how there were much better ways to do what they wanted, but there were probably half a thousand unique situations surrounding it. "I don't see the point in it," That was about the only possible thing he could say about it.

"There are many people who do." His father countered, thankfully turning a corner and taking the disgusting flesh market out of view. "The Satans being the foremost among them," Why wasn't he surprised... "It makes sure that our people will remain Soldiers, it wouldn't do for us to settle down when our leaders plan to resume the Great War after all."

He wasn't sure how that feeling in his gut could get worse.

It could always get worse.

"Enough about that." His father said as he patted him on the back, deliberately preventing him from delving into what he'd just said. "What's this talk I hear about you being invited to the Gremory Estate? Your grandmother hasn't stopped hounding me about it."

Right... "Ajuka invited me before the feast, Mother was rather glad about it." He sighed as he remembered just how much of an understatement that was, knowing that his mother had subsequently decided to test his ability to make sure he would be on par with his peers. He looked back at his father, "I assume I have your permission?"

"You do." Ducard said as he stopped him in his tracks and withdrew his hand from Alaric's back, they had stopped in front of what looked like an extravagant shop, though he couldn't just what it sold, "I know you'll uphold our family well, but there _is _something you'll need to deliver to Duke Gremory." He said as he gestured toward a small bench that was as empty as it was eerily clean, "Wait here, and stay in my sight. I'll be but a moment."

Alaric nodded and tentatively sat down on the _sparkling _bench, wandering just what his father was doing in a place like this...

* * *

_4 Days Later, Vassago Estate Training Grounds, Lucifaad _

His sister had finally made good on her promise to test his abilities.

He'd accepted once he was certain that his mother would also be there, using the opportunity as an impromptu addition to her little test to see if he was ready to progress with his training. Her presence had eased his worries about suffering any _unfortunate accidents_ during this spar especially since there were practically no witnesses in the Training Grounds.

Alaric was quite aware that he was being rather hypocritical when saying how he preferred not to judge people before getting to know them properly, then immediately turning around and doing just that to his own sister. He was willing to tolerate this negligible stain on his personal integrity however, especially when the specter of Devil Politics looming over any relationship he might form with his sister in the future.

She was clearly an ambitious person, all the signs pointed to it. The biggest possible sign being that she married what basically amounted to a finger puppet, caring more about his hedonist ways than anything that might infringe on her authority as the future Princess, not even mentioning how she practically saw more of the Capital City than her own home.

Yes, it all painted a rather clear picture on his sister's personality. And seeing as he was already quite a threat to her position even before people started calling him a prodigy just by having been born, Alaric thought he was being quite rational when exercising the amount of caution he had done this week whenever he had to deal with his sister.

Now... The spar.

He'd barely had time to plan what to do since Eneely had basically caught him while he was looking through the library, and he'd been too busy worry wondering if he was going to suffer an accident before his sister had informed him that their mother was going to be there. He was very fortunate that his sister had decided to grant him a little extra time to come up with a plan.

To his credit, he'd found one immediately.

As soon as his mother gave them the go ahead, the room was smothered in black smoke so thick that it was impossible to see through.

Alaric had been ready to dodge anything his sister might start out with, it was just a matter of going through the motions in that regard, and keep moving with enough subtlety so as not to advertise his position lest he be targeted by another one of Eneely's flame blasts. But what mattered the most was how he was going to capitalize on his sister's very temporary blindness.

Of course, he'd had a way to deal with the smog himself, he knew it was only a matter of time before his sister did as well.

So he just applied the common protective spells to himself as he calmly positioned himself behind her vague form, before finally pushing forward with his immense speed and swung a super-heated fist to his opponent's back.

It didn't make contact as he'd had to halt his momentum and slide away from an elbow strike coming his way before he could even get close enough, it had been fast enough to scrape his shields even with his own speed and strong enough to put a crack on them even with his hasty retreat. From there, he was firmly on the back-foot as he had to weave through a series of melee strikes with no openings for him to retort before finally getting his footing back and putting a distance between him and his sister.

He took a deep breath, easy to do now since the smog had cleared.

_When did that happen?_

"Crafty, little brother." She hadn't even broke a sweat. "But you'll have to do better than that."

"Rea-? WOAH!"

A gout of flame he could barely duck beneath cut his incredulous retort off, though he could dig in and use his magic to force the arena floor to be his shield before it could be directed downward.

It was quick to be abandoned when his sister stopped with the flames and used her own magic to force it to downward so it would crush him. He once again ran toward her, though this time he used this opportunity to feint a blow toward her gut, only to use his smaller stature to slide underneath her hand poised to catch his blow with her superb reflexes, and swinging a lightning-fast kick to her legs.

Which past through her leg as if nothing was there at all.

_Oh shit._

His reflexes _screamed _as he concentrated all of his shields on his body, only to be shattered into pieces when his sister's fist struck them and his wide-open side. It was enough to force the breath from his lungs, and it certainly took him off his feet, but it wasn't enough to knock him out of the fight. He retreated again, using a gust of strong wind to assist him in pushing himself away from his immovable sister.

He'd forgotten that she actually had the Dominion of Spirits, something that she had the innate ability to use, not unlike his Star Shaper.

Which he wasn't allowed to use, because his mother feared that she would do something like melt his own arm off.

_Well... this feels fair._

"You made a good showing little brother." Oh, he would have liked to wipe that smirk off her face. Actually... "But it's time to-."

She didn't have time to finish that, as she was busy fending off a gout of flame heading straight for her face. While she had no trouble batting it aside, it left her open for a charge from Alaric, and his glowing fist -a product of him using Star Shaper as much as he dared to- would have hit her straight on the nose had she not resorted to her ability and letting it past through her again.

His momentum carried Alaric straight through her incorporeal form, though he would quickly turn around and launch a series of blows against his sister before she could recover thanks to his superior speed. None of them would hit of course, as she would recover in less than five seconds and put him on the back-foot again. Him trying to break off like he had before would only resulting in giving her an opening which she would use to land a punch straight to his gut.

It was a great reminder to let him know that he'd forgot to put his shields back up, seeing as this blow was enough to send him flying back.

As he fought to regain his breathing, he heard his sister's heels (_she fought in heels?!_) clatter away, finally coming to a stop a distance away from him. "He lives up to his name."

"You could have been a little softer on him Eny," He heard his mother say, the chastisement in her voice all to apparent.

He could hear his sister's shrug, "It would have been an insult to his abilities, and he's going to need all the training he can get with the little monsters he'll be spending time with."

He finally managed to get himself up to a sitting position, right in time to see his mother and sister coming towards him. His mother was quick to help him up to his feet once she got close enough.

"You did well dear, but you know I told you to not use your power."

He just shrugged, "It was the only thing I could think of to even out the playing field."

"You were reckless, your sister is several decades older than you, she's supposed to be stronger, and you know that."

Yes, he did.

Didn't stop him from feeling like dirt, he needed to train even harder than he had to just reach his sister in sheer power scale, and he was pretty sure there was a point where just practicing on lifeless dummies or Devil servants weren't going to cut it. Not to mention that he needed to refine his fighting style entirely, seeing as he'd practically brought nothing to bear against her in the range department and that just _forgetting _his shields could be a literal death sentence in the long run and he needed to find a permanent solution for that.

It was something that he was already thinking about, but Alaric had thought he would have more time to implement these changes. But this fight, along with everything he'd seen this week had given him a strong reality check, _he was in Lucifaad _and he could not afford to be anything but serious.

"Alaric, stop sulking."

He looked up at his mother.

"I don't need to tell you your weaknesses, you seem to have figured them out already." There was a pause, as she had to throw a glare at her sister to silence her little giggle, "But what I can tell you, you impressed me with what you brought to bear today, especially since you didn't lose control over your Star Shaper despite it not being the center of your focus."

"But that doesn't mean that you used it well. Starting next week, I will be teaching you how to properly use Star Shaper."

_..._

_This seems like a good start._


	8. Chapter 8: Where it Began: Part 1

_On the topic of everlasting camaraderie..._

_I have stated numerous times that I'm not an outgoing person, the years spent disregarding any skill development in that area in favor of pursuits that I had ruled to be more important to my person would have probably doomed me to an early demise had it not been for the invitation of Ajuka Astaroth to a little gathering. While it may seem insignificant at first, seeing as I would also socialize with many people who would become my enemies in the future, I fully believe it shaped my future._

_It revealed to me that I had access to like-minded individuals, and in the future, kindred-spirits. Not only did it decided my future socially, it also did wonders for my ever-increasing power; that little invitation would put me in contact with people that helped me push myself past my limits in a way that exceeded even my most optimistic expectations. I am of course talking about Sirzechs Gremory, Falbium Glasya-Labolas and Serafall Sitri, that wasn't even to mention a continued friendship with Ajuka Astaroth and confusingly yet most importantly, it put me close to Galen Orias._

_While the future would change these relationships so much that they were unrecognizable from the way they would start, and some not for the better, I will never regret how it would come to pass and how it would begin._

* * *

It was Zoeticus Gremory that greeted Alaric, when he finally managed to disentangle himself from his needlessly worrying mother and stepped through the portal into a grand entrance hall. The rather relaxed looking crimson-haired man had been talking to a Guard when he spotted him entering his estate, he would quickly dismiss him with a quick wave and turn to him with a kind smile.

"Ah, you must be Ducard's son, the resemblance is uncanny." He said as he examined him, "You can find Sirzechs and his friends in the courtyard, your... uncle, is among them I believe."

_My uncle?_

_Oh... Yeah._

He must be talking about his Mother's younger brother, he thought he'd heard something like that... No matter, he just hoped that it wouldn't be a problem. "I thank you for having me, sir." He nodded to the Duke Gremory, before extending to him the little parcel his father had entrusted him to deliver. "My father sends his regards," He didn't have enough of a troublemaker's curiosity to check what it was, (Wasn't like he even had the opportunity to do so) though the shape of it was reminiscent of a book.

Duke Gremory took the parcel from his hands with an intrigued look. "Does he now..." He hummed, "You can go along, the courtyard is just across that hallway." He nodded and left, squashing down his disappointment about not getting to know what was in the parcel and squashing down his curiosity about it as he went.

It didn't take him that long to reach the courtyard, though he had to take a deep breath right before reaching the threshold to calm the nerves that had suddenly sprung up as he'd gotten closer. He wasn't very successful in doing it however, and would soon settle for just going outside into the Courtyard before someone found him awkwardly standing there.

He just had a moment to process that he'd passed through some sort of ward before stopping short.

_Fourteen? Yeah, fourteen, _children; all crowded around an incomplete magic circle. None of them were paying any attention to him entering the room as all of it was centered on the only figure Alaric recognized among them -Ajuka- as he was worked on completing it. It only took a moment for him to realize that they were working on something that wasn't allowed, judging by the little ward they'd put on the door that had muffled the sound of the chalk (Chalk could be used for magical circles... who knew?) Ajuka was using from the outside.

Though it would have been better to use one that would alert them if someone was about to arrive, seeing as they were still directing a rapt amount of attention to Ajuka before he'd decided to finally cough to get their attention, at which point they all spun around with panicked expressions before they realized that it was he, Alaric.

He could practically feel the breeze from their collective sigh of relief.

"Uh... Hello?"

The crimson head of hair at the back of the crowd (closest to Ajuka) that was clearly Sirzechs Gremory judging by his hair, was the first to collect himself and respond after pushing his way to the front, "Hi! You must be Alaric." He said with enthusiasm, extending his hand, which Alaric shook. "I'm Sirzechs Gremory, though you can call me Sirzechs, no need for formalities here."

That was good... Because there weren't exactly a lot of books on how junior Devil Nobility interacted with each other in the Lucifaad estate, and he hadn't exactly looked for them in Adamant once his attention had started to shift away from History and the topics related to it, toward the more taxing research about the infinite applications of magic in combat. "Alaric, then..." He said as he nodded and let go of his hand, "Thank you for having me."

The Gremory Heir just smiled as most of the people watching the exchange turned their attention back to Ajuka's endeavors, now that it was clear they were not in trouble, "I was kind of curious, Ajuka has never invited anyone else to these gatherings, no matter how much I try to get him to open up." His smile widened, "And, well... You were still a curiosity."

"Really?"

He gestured over to one of the only ones still paying attention to their conversation, a short boy who bare a remarkable resemblance to his mother, "We just know you existed because Galen told us." That would be his uncle, who waved at him for a brief moment. "You would have been invited had I know you'd arrived in the capital, but Ajuka beat me to it."

"I am grateful all the same, I wouldn't have known what to do had it not been for Ajuka."

Sirzechs grinned at that, "That was lucky of you."

"Yeah." Alaric said, letting the conversation pause for a moment as he peered over Sirzechs' shoulder, where Ajuka had completed the actual circle and was now putting the finishing touches on the interior. "So... Does this have anything to do with the silencing ward I passed through?" He couldn't help but feel amused when the grin turned into a grimace.

"There was supposed to be a detection ward, I forgot to check if anyone but me knew how to make one." Sirzechs coughed for a second and quickly changed the subject, "We... As in, everyone but Falbium there," He gestured over to someone who was dozing off on the table, "Are going to be using Ajuka's new 'transportation circle' to appear in Lucifer's Forest."

He raised a brow in response to that, "The dangerous forest crawling with demonic hellbeasts, you want to go there." He knew that Sirzechs was strong of course, terrifyingly so once you looked deeper into the rumors surrounding him. But that didn't change the fact that he was still a kid, and would be surrounded by little over a dozen more in a forest filled with the all kinds of beasts.

It was true that the more powerful members of Devil Nobility would use it to train their children with direct experience; a topic which he was planning on broaching with his parents once he reformed his fighting style and cleansed it off of the weakness his fight with Eneely had revealed, but that didn't mean anyone would appreciate their children going off without supervision.

"There's going to be fifteen of us, and we're some of the strongest of our generation." He shot him a knowing look, "You included." He shouldn't be surprised that a a Devil, even if they were nine years old, knew how to manipulate someone by playing on their pride.

He sighed when he realized that he actually wasn't as opposed to going to a forest filled with feral, supernatural animals that had a fair chance of killing him as he would have liked. Which either meant that he had actually been caught in Sirzechs' bait, (he would have no excuse for this, other than saying that he was technically younger than him) or his sense of self-preservation had shriveled up and died after the beating he received from his sister.

Well... It _would_ be a good way to gain some actual combat experience, one could not build an effective fighting style without some practical experience to see what actually worked and what didn't.

"It's still a bad idea." He said, though he knew that he was moments away from caving, "We're certainly going to be caught."

"Yes and no." It was Ajuka that said that, wiping his hands clean of the chalk that had stained them, "While it is certainly a bad idea, I have modified the circle so that we can be pulled back into this room with nothing more than a single word from me." He threw a glance at the still sleeping form of Falbium Glasya-Labolas, "Someone will have to stay with him and make sure to keep up the charade."

The unsaid assurance that they would be able to return at the first sign of fatal danger was a relief for Alaric, even more so than the assurance that was actually said. It also was the final nail in the coffin of his reluctance, which Sirzechs seemed to sense seeing as he'd patted his back with a smile and turned to the group which was waiting for him to choose who would be staying behind with the sleeping Falbium.

The boy seemed to fit into the shoes of a leader effortlessly. "Since it's Alaric's first time hunting with us and he agreed to come, it would only be fair to not leave him behind." First time? How long have they been doing this? "Ajuka and I will be going for obvious reasons, Serafall as well." He said, gesturing to a black haired girl who nodded back with a bloodthirsty grin.

"I'll stay." Said a short and stocky boy as he sat across from the Glasya-Labolas Heir, "Father got suspicious last time when I came home without a whole coat, I really don't need him breathing down my neck if it happens again."

Sirzechs thanked the boy as Ajuka got to work explaining him how to alert them with a simple enchanted trinket, Alaric tuned them out once he realized it was just a simple process and turned his attention back to the magic circle that had been written out of chalk, trying to understand how it actually worked in the mathematical sense Ajuka was so fond of and why it was needed when he probably knew how to make a gateway already.

He was torn out of his musings when he felt someone stepping up beside him, that someone being the same girl that had been mentioned by Sirzechs to be a shoe-in for their little hunting party. Seeing as it probably meant she was a regular in this group, it wouldn't be a huge leap to assume she knew why they were going to such lengths when there were easier methods, and why they were closed to them.

"Hey." He greeted, "Sitri, right?" He said, nodding to the crest that looked like it had been painstakingly embroidered onto the arm of her clothes, identical to the other seventy-two he'd spent valuable time memorizing because he thought it would be of help to him in the future, it looked as though he was right in that aspect. At her nod, he extended his hand in polite greeting. "Alaric."

"Serafall." She said, and shook his hand with a surprisingly strong grip. The way that he'd introduced himself to her was probably a violation of some sort of etiquette code now that he thought about it, he should read up on that before it became a problem in stricter social circles.

"Know why we're not using a normal gateway?" He asked, "I would assume Ajuka would know how to make one."

The girl just chuckled heartily, "Yeah, he knows." She said, before stabbing a finger toward their host, "But Sirzechs got us caught last time we did this here, so Duke Gremory made sure he couldn't do it again."

Naturally...

"And this would get us past the wards?"

She shrugged. "Ajuka says so, and he knows everything..."

It was amazing how reassured he was when she said that.

"We're ready," Ajuka said as he stepped on the circle and sat cross-legged on the middle, "Gather around me and make sure you are inside of the circle." Alaric shared only a brief look with Serafall before stepping forward and taking a deep breath as Ajuka's hand's started glowing and the courtyard around them started blurring away before disappearing entirely.

It was slowly replaced with a forest, Alaric took another breath and was greeted with the fresh smell of pine.

It was accompanied by a series of growls.

_Well... Let's get on with it._


	9. Chapter 9: Where it Began: Part 2

In the end, they hadn't even stepped out of the circle properly before they were tested.

The forest was already trembling with the voice of it's native fauna; a native fauna that had annihilated it's herbivore population so long ago that it might as well never have had them to begin with, a native fauna crawling with so many predators that most of them had either evolved or mutated to hunt their fellow predators. It was all they could do to just stay alive in this hellscape, where even the most innocent looking plant might open its jaws wide and swallow a lion whole.

The first creature that decided to enter the convenient clearing they had appeared in to examine the sudden appearance of possible prey; a canine with more sharp and spiked protrusions on it than Alaric had believed was possible, suffered an inglorious end when it was suddenly enveloped by a red light that erased it from existence, along with a large chunk of the shrubbery it had emerged from in just five seconds.

Twelve pairs of eyes would turn toward where it came from, all but one of them would be accusatory toward the increasingly sheepish looking Sirzechs Gremory as the ever-prevalent sound of hostile wildlife got louder and louder by the second, more and more of them picking up their scent and noticing that there were new and untested intruders in their domain that could be an easier meal than their fellow woodland hellbeasts.

Most normal people would realize that they were rather screwed upon realizing that of course, but most people weren't the overconfident children of the highest Devil Nobility, who were still glaring at their friend for bringing the whole damned forest upon them before they could even get a warm-up, _again. _This naturally excluded Alaric, who was staring at the Gremory Heir in shock as he put the pieces together.

_Power of Destruction... And he's already mastered it enough to use it so casually?_

_I guess the rumors about him were not exaggerated._

He would only snap out of it when he heard the distinct sound of a collapsing tree, joined by the rest of his peers as they all adopted a tense stance in preparation for the incoming combat. The eyes that were staring at Sirzechs were now only doing it because they were waiting on his plan, as suitable for his role as the de-facto leader of their hunting party by the simple virtue of being the strongest among them.

To his credit, the boy slipped into his assigned role like a glove, "Alright, we need to make a circle in the middle of the clearing and wait for them to come to us." He said, making Alaric frown as he realized it would negate his greatest advantage. "There's plenty of them for all of us, we just need to make sure there aren't any accidents." Right... He hadn't considered the possibility of friendly fire.

_My inexperience is showing... _

_I guess they said experience is the best teacher for a reason._

He followed the others as they quickly formed the circle even as he cursed himself for his shortsightedness, though he didn't have much time to berate himself further, as soon as he took his place between the boy that just so happened to be his uncle and a random girl, the small clearing they were in exploded into action as the rest of their welcoming party emerged from the treeline.

He would have liked to say he'd reacted admirably, but it would have been a lie.

He froze up.

He froze up hard, all of his frantic thought process ground to a halt as the concept of a bevy of unnatural creatures hell bent on killing him and everyone around him finally caught up to, and tangled fiercely into what remained of his human sanity. He stood there, gazing with wide eyes at the rapidly approaching form of a giant mantis-bug-hybrid... _thing_ as it skittered towards him with an unnatural speed, leaving it's herd in the dust, it's deadly looking claws aimed right at his head as it's maw spewed spittle in anticipation for an easy meal, surrounded by countless fellow abominations who sought the same prize.

The world around him slowed to a crawl as he looked at his death, his thoughts going too fast for him to make any sense of them. His peers had already started raining death upon them, yet he couldn't even lift a finger.

_You fucking coward, move!_

The world started to speed up slightly, the mantis creature was still coming toward him.

He still couldn't move.

_You're going to die here?! _

_All you are ever going to amount to being some worthless talk?_

This is insane, he couldn't do this...

_You can, you will._

How? He wasn't prepared for this!

_What was the past 8 years then?!_

He didn't know this crazy world was going to be like this! He'd already had several existential crises just wandering whether his sister was going to kill him or not! That wasn't the way to live a life!

The Mantis was within jumping distance.

_You are a Devil now, **act like it.**_

He'd never asked for this!

_Then you should have just fucking died instead of wanting a miracle to save yourself! **NOW STOP ACTING LIKE A GODDAMN PUSSY AND ACT LIKE THE DEVIL YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE BEFORE YOU GET YOURSELF KILLED.**_

The jolt of pain that accompanied that rant was enough to finally bring him to his senses.

The Mantis was here, and it raised it's claws as it towered above Alaric Vassago, and brought it down in an attempt to kill him, in the time it took for him to shake himself out of his stupor, it had scaled the whole clearing with lightning speed just to reach the weakest link.

_But he was faster._

The mindless beast had left it's unarmored underbelly wide open when it had rose up on its hind legs to deliver its blow, and as advantageous of a position the beast was currently in, it still was no match for an old-fashioned punch directly impacting its body, aided by magically enhanced speed which had been cultivated for as long as he could walk and run.

Add in a little pneumatic force into the mix, and the beast was sent hurtling backwards into those behind him, a hole blown in its chest. It had died before it even had a chance to land.

That was much better...

Now that he had finally gotten over his little panic-attack, he was much more aware of his surroundings. That didn't mean he had time to examine them however, not when there was still a horde of hellbeasts that wanted to tear out his jugular occupying his attention. The circle they had made was not a tight one that put them shoulder to shoulder by any means, and the distance between each person made sure that each of them were too occupied with dealing with the things directly heading for them, with the only upside being that they wouldn't suffer any unfortunate incidents relating to friendly fire.

It was as good as any of them were going to get in this situation, Alaric would not be alone in saying that he didn't want to become Sirzechs' collateral damage, especially if one paid attention to vast swathes of forest just disappearing with a very brief flash of infernal red light.

His brief respite didn't even last a whole minute as his assailants finally untangled themselves from the corpse of the Mantis, once again heading for Alaric with reckless abandon. He wouldn't freeze up like he had last time though, and instead focus on putting an alternate application of his great speed to use with an eerie calmness that slowed down time for an entirely different reason.

It was an embarrassing fact that he had forgotten about it in all of the... _excitement, _the enhancing affect all his agility training had lent to other capabilities such as reflexes and striking speed. Both of which he immediately put to use to great effect, sending an ugly doppelganger of the now-deceased Mantis to the same ugly fate its fellow had suffered after dodging a swipe that would have liberated his head from his shoulders and using the momentum to kick away a hellhound with a liberal application of the aforementioned pneumatic enhancement on his fist.

Naturally, using your naked fist to punch creatures with thick hides and armored carapaces while also making sure that they had enough force to actually hurt those creatures by applying a haphazard understanding of matters like air pressure into the mix hurt like hell, even with the vaunted endurance of his kind (of course one also had to consider the vaunted endurance of _their_ kind, but that usually fell to the wayside when describing just how great you are) but that wasn't important when facing literal hellbeasts in literal hell.

There were more pressing matters to attend to; like how in situations like the one he was in right now, it was usually only a matter of time before he would be swarmed by his still significantly numerous enemies. No matter how fast he could dispatch a singular enemy within melee range, it would only be a matter of time before they overwhelmed him as he waited for them to get close enough.

Fortunately, him forgetting most of his training that had been happening for the previous eight years was only a temporary affair, so it didn't take a long for him to cook up a little surprise for the next batch of enemies that decided they wanted to try their luck with him. In a rather literal manner, as a plume of flame would erupt from his outstretched hand and swallow the next arrivals whole.

That didn't mean he put a stop to it though, instead intensifying the gout of flame and bringing another hand into the mix so he could better orchestrate its movement. The burst would slowly transition into a steady stream of red flame, something that he could use to better tame the waves of raging flame. All in all, it was a rather contradictory manner toward his usually fast-paced approach to combat, but it was showing great effectiveness for being something he'd thought to try on the spot.

In fact, it was so effective that he could even cast a side-eye to his surroundings.

He was glad to see that he wasn't doing much worse compared to some of the others, judging by the trouble the girl nearest to him was having had it not been a timely intervention from Sirzechs that he was lucky enough to see obliterate a good chunk of the ground after the Gremory Heir had jumped high enough that doing an airstrike would not put the one he was supposed to save in danger.

It also gave him the gist of what Sirzechs had been doing, busy running intervention for those that needed it no doubt, which might have made Alaric consider why he hadn't helped him before had he not known that his job probably kept him busy enough to not notice his predicament, though he would be lying if he said his pride hadn't let him to consider that Alaric had just reacted too fast for him to react.

Another glance in the opposite direction showed him that his uncl- _Galen, _was holding his own rather admirably. Though any pleasant familial pride he might have had for it died an ugly death when he realized just how he was doing it.

He'd seen enough demonstrations from his mother that he could recognize the familiar sight of Star Shaper anywhere, and Galen was entirely too comfortable with what was basically _lasers._

It was enough to make him lose his concentration for a moment, though he was lucky that the properties of the fire he'd been conjuring was too calm to cause any real trouble before he could get it back under control and a rather creative application of absorption saw it all return to him along with every bit of magical power he'd spent into containing the well of flames.

The additional source of demonic energy didn't stay in his reserves for long however, it would be expelled from his hands with a very violent burst of lightning that may have had a well-deserved amount of frustration poured into it judging by the deafening thunderclap that followed the strike which had fried to death; several unsuspecting would-be predators before they could even enter their small clearing.

That gave him a significant amount of breathing room, as he had quickly capitalized on the opportunity to turn the entire ground between him and the treeline into quicksand in a small radius, which gave him time to complete his thought process.

_Star Shaper, something __he knows how to use, despite it being rather dangerous, something told to me numerous times._

_Is this another instance of my mother's coddling? __Or is there something else going on here?_

While he would be a fool to disregard all the valid concerns his mother had told him about the dangers of using the power without fully mastering it, seeing as he'd already had a first hand demonstration when he'd melted off the arm of one of his combat instructors, it was an undeniable fact that a great deal of potential was being smothered by him not having access to his birthright.

But it would also be the height of stupidity to not consider every possible application of his power, something which he had been doing ever since his mother had showed him its potential by melting an entire mountain with a miniature star. If he was correct in his interpretation on just 'what made a star', he had a great arsenal just waiting to be put to use...

Because _plasma, _made a star.

Considering that the calendar was still firmly stuck on the Renaissance Era, he was not surprised to see that there was such a vague and limiting explanation for something so simple yet so fascinating when one had the benefit of hindsight. The discovery of the fourth state of matter was still a few centuries away if he remembered it correctly, and the supernatural beings like Devils already had everything they needed with their magic to ever do any innovating that might lead them to such a revelation.

But he was getting off topic, what was important here that he was actually correct in his assessment, seeing as that rather violent burst of lightning had been powerful enough to shatter concrete while also being near effortless and taking minimal amount of energy to cast. It went without saying that things such as lightning were plasma, and his Star Shaper gave him dominion over everything related to the fourth state of matter.

He knew this whole thought process was a tangent that had run miles ahead of what had caused it to happen, but observing his 'uncle' who was every part his contemporary fling about beams or orbs of solar energy had actually turned from mere jealous and indignant observation, to a potential well of knowledge and something that might just prove to be a colossal boon to his power development.

He was lucky on that front, because the tide of monsters emerging from the forest had been doing nothing but decreasing from the moment he'd turned the ground into quicksand, and was now nothing more than a trickle that was quickly being dispatched.

"Everyone alright?" Came the voice of Sirzechs, taking him out of his thoughts as he turned around to see that people were already breaking from the circle, sitting below a tree or just collapsing where they stood in their exhaustion. No one seemed to be injured from the looks of it, which brought a sigh of relief from the crimson haired boy, "That's good." He didn't even look exhausted.

Though he couldn't talk, he had just about managed to work up a sweat.

That might have had something to do with the revelation he had just some minutes prior.

He was feeling a little giddy actually...

"That was intense..." Someone he didn't recognize said, "It was never like that before."

It was Ajuka who answered, "That's because we appeared in the depths of the forest, further than we've ever managed to go."

Huh...

Someone else jumped in, "We still did well!"

"We did more than well, look at it!" That was Serafall, who was grinning ear to ear as she gestured over to the small hills of corpses they had just managed to create. She was met with more than a couple murmurings of approval, everyone's pride soaring as they beheld their collective handiwork. Alaric noted that her side of the circle looked like it had suffered a miniature ice age and contained more than a little amount of beats that had been shattered into pieces.

"Anyone keep count?" Another asked.

A very ill-mannered snort followed that question, "I thought we weren't doing that, everyone knows Sirzechs is going to win." Laughter followed, one that Alaric joined as everyone pointed out bits of the treeline that had simply ceased to exist under Sirzechs' indiscriminate assault. He was certainly glad that he looked like a decent person, he didn't want to imagine how terrifying he would be if he wasn't.

He proved his point by laughing along with them and saying, "Our new arrival certainly gave me a challenge in the theatrics." Ah, had he? "I saw the one you sent flying with that kick, and I think everyone heard that lightning."

Well... He was certainly observant, "Thanks, though I wouldn't recommend actually doing it." He said as he nursed his bruised hand that had started throbbing with pain once the adrenaline had worn off. He grinned as that caused another bout of laughter among them, it seemed like he had been the only one that had let them get close enough to engage in actual melee.

Or others were just laughing at his misfortune for having forgotten his wards.

_Again._

He was going to need armor at this rate.

"Still not bad for your first hunt!" Sirzechs would say with his ever-present smile, before turning to the group. "Anyone up for a victory feast? I think Ajuka and I could raid the kitchens and come back without being noticed."

"What if they attack again?" The girl that had been next to him in the circle asked.

Ajuka shook his head, "They won't, there aren't any demons left in this neck of the forest to even notice me and Sirzechs leaving."

That was a neat bit of information, and it managed to soothe everybody's worries it seemed.

He certainly wouldn't say no to a snack.

Though even the promise of food wouldn't distract him from the existence of Galen Orias forever, it was time he and his _uncle_ had a little chat.


	10. Chapter 10: Where it Began: Part 3

**Sorry this one was a little late, had some family business to attend to, an increase in workload didn't help that much either...**

**Anyway, enjoy the end of this first multi-part saga...**

* * *

It wasn't hard to catch Galen alone, he'd made a bee-line for the pile of charred corpses he'd surely made as soon as Ajuka and Sirzechs had disappeared from the forest and had taken the Transportation Circle with them as they did so. Alaric would wait only a moment to see if anybody else would approach his relative before finally doing it himself, helped by the fact that everyone had either been too exhausted to approach him or was too caught up in reliving their exploits in already-established friend groups.

He didn't know why Galen was not joining either of those groups, but that fact didn't concern him much, either he would find out what he was intending to do with a bunch of dead hellbeasts after spending a few moments in close proximity, or he would be told when they were in conversation. Either way, he didn't actually care all that much about it beyond a small curiosity, there were several other concerns he was vested in.

It didn't escape him that he was actually rather fine with the gruesome sight of a boy poking around mutilated carcass right in front of him, and the fact that he'd caused some of those said carcasses didn't even make him pause for a moment... Maybe he was actually more than a little emotionally exhausted after his little episode than he thought? Or was it simply that he'd just gotten too used to the numerous realities about being a Devil that he once might've been disgusted by?

He'd probably know once when this was all over.

For now, there was things he needed to do.

The boy had been aware of his growing proximity already, and had turned to accommodate, but he would be the one to initiate the actual conversation, wouldn't be polite to force the boy to speak when he was going to interrogate him anyway. "Galen, right?" He chose the informal approach, playing up the family angle might negate his reluctance to open up about a private topic.

"Yes," The boy nodded, "And you are Alaric, it is nice to finally meet you." He extended his hand, which Alaric shook for a brief moment before letting go, his hands were caked in a small amount of blood after all, and he would be lying if they weren't throbbing with no small amount of pain from his improvised technique, no matter how effective it was.

Galen didn't seemed to mind, so he just disregarded it and let it go without saying, "You were holding yourself well back there," he said instead, waving a hand towards the pile of charred carcasses his relative was poking through, which did well to enunciate his point, "From what I managed to see." Which hadn't been much, but compliments were compliments.

"Thank you... _Cousin._"_ That's nice of him, saves__ me from having to call him Uncle. _"I can say the same about you," He continued, "I've certainly not seen Sirzechs praise anyone like that in their first hunt."

He smiled slightly and nodded to show his appreciation to his 'cousin's' comment, but it started to fade as he started to contemplate. He'd certainly been planning on gauging what kind of impression he'd made after Sirzechs' comments, and this knowledge would help immensely in that aspect, but Left unsaid was the high esteem everyone seemed to hold their host in, something to keep an eye on in the future?

The boy was certainly charismatic, seeing as he looked to be the sole unifying force connecting this group together from what he had observed, it helped that he was monstrously strong for his age and was only going to get monstrously stronger in the future, add into this mixture; the intellect to use all of these qualities to it's fullest, it would make him a terrifying force of nature.

But for all of those qualities, he was still a child.

A Devil Child, but a child all the same.

He didn't know if what the boy was doing was deliberate, but one couldn't deny the results. All of these children would benefit from Sirzechs' friendship, and seeing as they were all children of influential people set to inherit all (or at least some, in cases like Alaric's where they were the second child.) of that influence, the boy would have a sizable alliance network when he grew up to properly utilize it.

The problem (at least, a problem for _Alaric_) is that the boy was still an unknown, and would continue to be one even if their relationship grew to that of close friends, simply because he didn't know what his future goals might be and if those goals would clash with his. While that wasn't enough to put himself against Sirzechs Gremory and draw his line in the sand, it was enough to warn Alaric against becoming dependent on the him.

Self-reliance was always going to be his goal anyway; but if his inclusion in this little group became a permanent thing, it would be a good idea to present himself as Sirzechs' equal rather than his subordinate, which seemed to be the role of everyone here even if they were sure to deny it when asked. Who knows? This approach might even allow him to supplant Sirzechs with some of them.

Or, it might prove he was being a little too paranoid, seeing as he was searching for intrigue in what basically amounted to a social gathering of children.

Devil children who'd just divested a whole forest out of a good portion of its native fauna, which might be a natural thing for devil children to do, which made the signs point to his growing paranoia again. That was why he needed to get back on topic before this tangent taxed his brain more than it already had been, and this was a slightly more pressing matter.

So he broke the silence with a question, "I wanted to ask about some of the techniques I saw you use," Alaric said, turning his attention to the bodies while keeping his cousin inside of his vision to gauge his reaction, "It is quite different from Mother's style." He wasn't knowledgeable about how she conducted actual combat, but her demonstrations included plenty of 'miniature' stars with enough force to melt down a mountain.

Galen nodded, "That is because the technique belongs to me," He said, "It was borne out of an idea I had during one of my lady mother's training sessions, you know how grueling our family could get when it comes to training." He did, yet he had a hunch that he didn't know it like Galen did for some reason, and that reason probably had something to do with the subject of their respective training.

How fortunate for him that the subject could easily be deduced by a simple throwaway line, "It is either sink or swim, especially when it comes to our birthright." He raised his hand and watched it change as he willed his power through it, though all of his attention was focused on his _cousin's _reaction to that line as that hand started to glow with the immense power of the Sun Shaper, just waiting to be released.

Yet just couldn't be, because it was held back from its potential, to the point where it could be too late.

His confirmation came when Galen nodded, "Just so."

He should have known.

It seemed as though he and his mother had different ideas on just how a Devil could thrive in a life that was the pinnacle of the word 'cutthroat', and she believed that undercutting his readiness for such conditions was a decision she thought she could make for him. Some might think that he was overreacting, but he was sure it was the opposite in a situation like this, especially when there were plenty of ways he could expose this _negligence_.

The deadly light emerging from his hand slowly started to fade as Alaric fully turned to his cousin, "You must have started your training, very early to come up with such a technique before even reaching ten years of age, no?"

"Mother would not have it any other way,she was fond of reminding me that Lady Vassago had started even earlier and thrived when I would complain," His uncle/cousin chuckled as he finally tore his attention away from the bevy of corpses he'd created and turned toward Alaric with a smirk on his face. "I take it yours didn't?"

Their eyes met.

Two, almost identical sets of amber orbs, they told of a shared and noble heritage, yet one was well on its way to become a refined tool while the other one was even know suffering from the lack of care to its efficiency.

Alaric smiled back, a masterfully created mask that perfectly hid what was boiling beneath.

His answer wasn't far behind, "Mother is partial to late starts."

"You're lucky, it has given you an arsenal rich in variety."

_Lucky is one word for it... _

This little trip was turning out to be all sorts of educational, and he didn't know if he loved it or hated it.

One thing was clear though; this outing had given him a lot of valuable insights, insights that he wouldn't be able to take advantage of had he actually been the child he was acting like and couldn't comprehend their importance, the time had come to actually use it and become the master of his own destiny in truth.

He wasn't impulsive enough to take the required steps one needed to take while making such important decisions of course, especially ones that would cause a such a great change on his current course, his present exhausted state would only lend itself to poor planning. But he knew it was a decision that had to be made if he was to actually accomplish his ambitions.

His mother had already cost him years of progress, all of it over some misplaced worry for something that had long been dead and buried, his future depended on him not allowing something like that to happen again, lest all of his ambition be for naught and his potential be squandered again, this life only remembered as a second one that had ended prematurely.

The time had come to take the reigns of his own life and decide his own course.

* * *

It was malnourished.

It had become a fact of Its life ever since its sire had cast it off from his flock. A _constant_, _**unwanted **_companion that wouldn't leave It alone no matter what It did to try and sate it, whether It scour the entire forest of life just so it could fill Its stomach to no avail or drain an entire river of water to sate Its thirst, nothing It did could change that fact ever since It had challenged Its Sire.

It was only natural that It did so, after all; _It_ had grown stronger than Its decadent Sire and therefore was entitled to ownership over his entire hoard and hegemony over his entire flock. If the senile Sire refused to admit Its superiority and accept death like he was supposed, the decrepit relic would simply have to be disposed of and the natural order reasserted by virtue of Its fangs tearing out his throat.

But It had failed in Its attempt to dispose of the weaker progenitor, simply because Its _thrice damned_, _**Hel**_-_bound_ Sire had resorted to the cowardly way and used trickery to emerge triumphant over Its superior might. That was not all that he'd done, because Its Sire had not settled on just stripping It of all that It was and would be, he had also cast It down to the Underworld and had cursed him to suffer from Its notoriously voracious apatite for all of eternity, just to further mock Its humiliating defeat.

Its Pride was the only thing that was keeping It alive, even as it searched for one so Its eternal suffering could finally end. It would not allow itself to be killed by the inferior beings that infested this accursed forest, nor would It further its own suffering by charging headlong into the lair of beings of greater power than It could ever possibly comprehend, they who would turn the remains of Its shattered Pride into dust by keeping It as a mere pet.

Yet, such was the nature of Its curse that It was not even allowed a say in how It would die, as the great curse that gnawed through Its being, Its very soul weakened what little remained of Its once mighty strength. Even now, It could feel Its bones lose their strength; soon, It would not even be able to use Its claws to tear Its tasteless prey asunder, and Its once mighty jaws would not be able to effortlessly put an end to the life of Its prey.

_Soon_, it would happen soon.

Its wings were already taken from It, now nothing more than useless dead-weight when once It could use them to roam the skies freely. It remembered the fear It felt when It lost them, the hollow feeling that had nothing to do with Its curse that haunted It every accursed moment It spent chained to the ground... Yet even that fear was dwarfed by the encroaching dread of the same thing happening to Its legs.

One might speculate that It was becoming a little desperate to find a death that suited It.

Which was why It had been growing increasingly aware of everything so It could get away from that encroaching and unworthy end, and how It wished that it be anything but careful so It could not have to run away from inferior creatures just to preserve what remained of Its strength, yet It could not do it for fear of what had defined Its life from the moment of Its disgrace...

But now it looked like fortune was finally smiling down on It.

Because It had found Its death.

Even from miles away It could hear the sounds of the slaughter, the tantalizing smell of strong magic and the mouth-watering one of spilled blood from _terrified _prey. It had run toward in the direction of it with newfound vigor. It had remembered the emotions It had once thought to be long-forgotten, of the euphoria of glorious battle, the rapture of triumph and the feeling of strength now long lost...

It had known true fear, dwarfing anything that It had felt before when these feelings had started to fade along with the sound of battle, and It had known true happiness when it finally got close enough for his still sharp eyes to spot that those who had caused the slaughter had not left, and were just celebrating their victory by mocking the weak creatures that had been slaughtered down to the last by desecrating their graves.

It knew that these were the same creatures that ruled the largest part of the Underworld, in which It had been stuck in. They had always been known for their trickery and brutality, and had once had Its respect despite their cowardly nature for causing the Greatest War. Nowadays, Its feelings regarding them could be boiled down into fear of being captured, for It could no longer hold Its own against such foes and feared that their cruel ways would see It rendered as a mere pet to feast their eyes upon rather than the end It desired if It were to challenge them.

But those in front of It were just whelps, It knew enough to recognize the difference. Whelps would not possess the same cunning a their sires, and while they would also not have the same power as their parents, no one could sat that It died an unworthy death if It were to fall against such a large group of them, especially since It could smell how strong the magic was within them.

But It still watched for a moment, to see if they would do anything else.

It later realized that It was being a coward, and needed to attack if It were to finally receive the death and finally redeem Itself of the disgrace It had suffered under Its infernal Sire.

So It did.

It started moving toward the clearing, the renewed vigor inside of Its veins starting to pump with even greater intensity as It got closer and closer to Its nearest prey. Soon enough, It had thrown caution to the wind and was charging forwards with no regard for the cowardly ambushes It had been forced to resort to as Its strength abandoned It, the forest was soon filled with the sounds of uprooted trees and the roars of triumph it spewed as It got closer and closer to Its destiny.

Naturally, it didn't take long for the whelps it was targeting to notice just what was happening.

The shouts of alarm and fear were music to Its ears, especially the one that sounded as it finally emerged into the clearing and roared Its challenge.

"**DRAGON!**"

It was immediately greeted with a volley of various magical attacks, though It would easily ignore those as they impacted Its still-strong hide with only a small jolt of pain making itself be felt through Its bloodlust. It quickly turned Its attention to the closest whelp It could see and charged toward It with Its jaws wide open, ready to shred the child into pieces in another tasteless meal.

Only the quick thinking of his fellows would save the whelp from an early death, as a great blast of air would send the child flying away and out of the path of Its jaws. It would quickly wheel around to see who had denied It, Its rightful meal, only to roar in pain as several more blasts of various magic blasts impacted Its back. The offending parasites would be dealt with by a quick swipe of Its tail which by no means a permanent solution, and would do little to take It out of Its bloodlust.

But now It had a defenseless target It could quickly get rid of, those whom It had just sent flying with Its tail, who were only just now finding their footing. It quickly rose up on Its hind legs and opened Its jaws wide in an effort to bring it down on the terrified whelps that were drowning in Its shadow, only to find that they were all too successful in escaping death by cowardly retreat.

Its sharp teeth would only graze the child's clothes, and only another bout of wildly flailing limbs would save it from suffering another collective attack. But It knew that the children could not keep this up forever.

Neither could It, but It was not trying to stay alive anyway.

"DON'T RUN!" A voice shouted, to a significant portion of the children that had been running away from the clearing. "STAY TOGETHER!"

It chose that moment to show just how foolish that notion would be by lashing out again, slamming its wing into one of them that had gotten to close to be advisable, and that would find themselves getting intimately acquainted with a tree.

It didn't take long after that for someone to find a counter argument, which was given right as the aforementioned child escaped death only by a narrow margin, taking cover behind the tree that they had impacted, which quickly found itself uprooted as the child had to continue running before their head could suffer the same fate. "WHY?! SO IT COULD EAT US ALL IN ONE GO?!"

"JUST LISTEN TO ME!"

Those were the only intelligible words that It could understand from the cacophony of screams that permeated the clearing, and the direction of it which It would be turning towards in an attempt to silence. Easier said than done of course, the effort was rewarded with the quick disappearance of the intended victim and a burst of lightning striking It in the mouth, which would be capitalized on by the other whelps by swarming it with concentrated blasts of magic.

How It wished It could still be the bane of battlefields with a single breath, capable of annihilating entire armies, just another thing stolen from It after Its exile. But now was not the time for It to drown in nostalgia, especially when Its bloodlust was proving hard-pressed to make It ignore the pain from the repeated assaults it was suffering under, and that had to stop.

Thankfully, It was anything but stupid, and had a lot of experience dealing with such groups. It all boiled down to disrupting their momentum and putting them on the defensive, not giving them any chance to regain that lost momentum and pick them off one by one. Their scattered positioning was an obstacle easily surmounted by It being a huge beast that had the wing-span to cover half of this clearing if It so wished, and It had already been using it in conjunction with Its tail, it was only required that It simply increase the frequency in which It did so.

So It did, wildly flailing around with savage strikes of every limb It had available to It, wreaking havoc into the battlefield as It fell ever deeper into the pit of nostalgia that It wasn't supposed to do as It once again dominated the battlefield. The whelps scattered, some where hit by It and some were hard-pressed to avoid Its unpredictable flailing and all of them unable to retaliate in face of such a relentless assault.

Those that were able to retaliate only did so with scattered attacks that barely made It feel anything under Its thick hide, especially with Its renewed bloodlust aiding It in ignoring them. It was quick to dispatch those few who dared, striking them with Its tail, lashing out with Its wings, and snapping out with Its long neck and jaws as It cut a swathe through Its opposition.

When Its rampage was finally over, Its bloodlust faded and It looked to see that the whelps had been scattered. Their cohesion was lost, most of them either hiding or trying to escape with those that had fallen to Its assault. They were all easy prey just waiting to be devoured, as distracted as they were though none were dead or seriously injured, though they were all soon to be If it had anything to say about it.

It was disappointed to be honest.

It had expected more of a challenge from them.

It supposed that It should not have expected much from mere whelps.

And maybe, _just_ maybe... It was stronger than It had assumed previously.

But these were all speculations, as It roared Its victory to the sky and prepared to start a whole another slaughter, It reckoned that It could finish those speculations when this was all said and done.

How wrong It was...

As soon as It took Its eyes off of Its now-perceived prey, everything changed.

Suddenly, clouds gathered overhead and lightning struck from the skies once again, once more striking It. But this wasn't the same as the one It had endured with some difficulty some minutes earlier, this was one that struck It straight in Its mouth and caused It unimaginable pain, the sort of pain that went from Its teeth and didn't stop until it reached Its insides, and continued to torture It from inside out again and again.

The exhaustion It had been feeling the encroachment of returned with a vengeance, a result of It spending so much energy in search of death, and the disappearance of the bloodlust that had numbed the pain and renewed vigor meant that It felt _everything._

And the attacks didn't stop either, strike after strike landed on Its body, and It was unable to do anything about it but squirm and roar in pain. Whenever It tried to retaliate, Its limbs would be frozen solid with ice, and soon after that ice would be shattered in the flurry of lightning strikes that continued their barrage. Soon, Its whole world became pain unending.

And It collapsed...

But It was not ready to give up yet.

It spent unimaginable effort in trying to open Its eyes, trying to see just what was killing it.

It didn't take long for It to discover.

One whelp, raining bolt after bolt of lightning at Its soon-to-be carcass, another one was not far away from him, her movements indicating that she was the one freezing Its limbs whenever It tried to go on the offensive.

It noticed the amber eyes on the whelp that was killing It, and how they were filled with sheer _intent._

It reminded It of Itself, _once_...

It felt the strength in Its limbs return, one final time.

It knew what to do.

It lunged toward the boy that was killing It, shattering through the ice that was trying to hold It back from Its final charge, and stepping through the swamp that had become the clearing in an effort to _finally die_.

Just as It was preparing to be disappointed, when suddenly, the boy raised a hand.

Even It was blinded by the sheer light that burst out from it, as the very energy from the environment gathered on the boys hand.

And soon after, pointed the hand at It.

After that It knew no more.

* * *

Alaric fell to his knees as he felt the last vestiges of the attack leave his body, cradling his smoking hand with a fascinated expression despite how tired he was feeling at that moment.

_I just killed a dragon._

He slowly clenched and unclenched the smoking hand, it hurt something fierce, and he was having some trouble freely moving the fingers about, but it was sure to heal in the future, along with the gash on his leg he'd been rewarded with during a narrow dodge during the Dragon's frenzy. The attack that had killed it had been a desperate measure, modeled after his rudimentary understanding of his 'cousin's' attack and a hefty helping of the inherent Devil Magic, but it worked.

_I used Star Shaper, and didn't lose a limb._

"Is it... dead?" Someone asked, he didn't care that much to find about who, he was still feeling a little numb.

"What does it look like, you imbecile." Someone else snapped at the one who had asked the question. "Of course It's dead."

Alaric turned his head away from his still smoking hand and looked at the Dragon. It looked relatively small for a dragon, though one might call him insane for ever calling something as large as a bus 'small', the records Alaric read about Dragons usually had them standing as tall as _castles,_ some even be larger than mountains. He didn't imagine any of those would die in the way this one had.

They would be a little less susceptible to getting a hole blown in their head, he imagined.

"Are you alright?" He heard someone ask, though it took him a moment to place the familiar voice to a face.

"Could be better," He said, cringing somewhat as he forced his exhausted body to turn around and face Serafall Sitri, but he ignored the protesting of his body, this had to be done. "Thank you for your assistance," He said with unfaked gratitude. "It came just in time."

He was rewarded with a returned smile, "It was nothing, you were the one to kill it."

She could have killed it easily he imagined, her power was certainly strong enough to accomplish it, and she knew how to take full advantage of it if the nature of her assistance was any indication. But he didn't bring it up, whatever her motives were in not assisting it further, it had allowed him to take a vital step forward, and that was enough to make him feel indebted to her for not interfering in that.

He noticed that those who had fallen down were slowly recovering, and those that had been on the process of running had come back, all of them slowly gathering into a circle around the two of them, and All of them were either focused on the Dragon or on him. It didn't take long for him to spot Galen, who looked like he had suffered little, the only injury he was supporting was a little cut on his cheek.

"What do you think?" He asked, specifically to him.

He was rewarded with a nervous chuckle, and an equally nervous quip from his 'cousin' "Could use some work..."

He chuckled, shortly joined by those around them. It didn't take a genius to know just why they were laughing, or just why Galen was so nervous, power begat sycophants and fear at the same time after all, and he had just killed a Dragon, a lesser one it looked like, but a Dragon all the same...

Interestingly enough, Serafall was not among those laughing.

That was good, he supposed.

A strange sound sounded through the clearing, and all of them present in the clearing whirled around to the source of the sound, ready to blast what caused it to bits if it proved hostile.

There was no need however, Sirzechs and Ajuka had come back.

They looked shocked, _he couldn't imagine why._

"What happened here?!"

It was he who answered, and the answer he made was one that would perfectly represent his current mood.

"It's a long story..."

* * *

**Hope you Enjoy...**


	11. Chapter 11: Where it Began, End

That they hadn't gotten caught really shouldn't have surprised as much as it had.

It had only taken a small spell that nearly all of them had memorized since childhood to fix the damage done to their clothes, and vanish away the dirt, grime and blood that had accumulated after an afternoon spent fighting in a dangerous forest. The only trouble they'd had with that endeavor had been to hide the various injuries they'd gotten, since none of them had the capability to heal injuries.

Thankfully, there hadn't been any trouble hiding the various welts and bruises with just a little application of creativity. It helped that there had been a miraculous lack of serious injuries all around, whatever cuts there had been promptly handled by their natural regeneration with the single exception of his leg, but that had already been bandaged and was well on the way to recovery thanks to Ajuka, who looked like he had way too much experience with something like that.

But their (somewhat startling) expertise in hiding injuries didn't explain how apparently _no one of importance _had come to check on them to see how they were doing! The servants that had come to check up on them had apparently bought a laughable story about a game of 'hide and seek' (that wasn't the actual name of the game, but he had been too incredulous to ask just what name they had given to a game he'd never cared much about) and had not thought to investigate further when they were told that a room full of some of the most important children in the Underworld had just disappeared!

Maybe it was a small remnant of the sickly human he'd left behind clamoring for some semblance of a long-past definition of normalcy after the amazingly long day he'd had, which had certainly cost him some of the naivete leftover from that previous life by breaking through the last barriers that remained of it, or maybe it was just him missing something major thanks to his tiredness and the not-so-insignificant pain in his leg.

He'd put more stock to the latter, seeing as he'd actually needed help walking for a long while after they'd left the forest and had only found the strength once he'd reached his allotted time to stay. Hiding his bad-leg in front of Duke Gremory had been especially hard, but he'd managed it just fine and had left the Gremory Estate after he'd so thoughtfully provided him with a way back.

It's what came after that was the hardest challenge.

The fact that he'd rested did not give him the ability to run around without any worries, the opposite in fact, it had taken his all not to collapse immediately after being ambushed by a collection of maids with more duty than sense. Apparently his mother and father had been too busy to greet him at his return and had given them the duty of seeing to his every need in order to compensate.

They'd been especially persistent, and he wasn't even exaggerating when he said that, given that one of them had been actually tried to _drag_ him to dinner. It was another miracle that he hadn't just snapped and shouted at them and extracted himself from their tender mercies at the same time, given that he'd almost blacked out for a moment when the aforementioned dragging occurred, the unknowing maid making him put too much weight on his injured leg.

He distinctly remembered an out-of-body experience, though he was too tired to care.

That didn't mean he hadn't memorized their faces of course, he was owed a lot more vindication than just blowing off the head of a Dragon after the day he'd been through.

He was thankful that neither of his parents had been there of course, he was already dreading how much of a disaster it would be since he didn't have chance of hiding his injuries and fatigue from them, and it wouldn't do for him to confront his mother unintentionally about the things he'd learned today without at least contemplating them with a clear head only sleep would provide.

The torturous trek to his room had gone without any interruptions, something which he was thankful for because he'd been at the end of his rope when he'd finally planted himself on the bed and went out like a light without even taking off his clothes, his last thoughts had been about an uncertain future that was getting evermore decisive as days passed by...

* * *

He woke up early.

'Early' was a strange concept when one was living in the Underworld, there was no celestial body to indicate there being day or night, the sky being in a constant state of eerie purple that managed to encapsulate the hellish aesthetic in some way despite the true Underworld not actually resembling any of the biblical misconceptions that was spouted above-ground.

Yet the figurative 'day and night' cycle of the Devil Civilization that had not only persisted along human lines but had adapted to the same timeline with the introduction of Human slaves after the Great War, going so far as to adopt a crude clock based on a vague 'Northern Adriatic Timezone' the place that the Devils had spent a majority of their time in during the Great War, but he was working on speculation here, for all their 'advancements', Devils were still firmly working inside of Renaissance Era limitations when it came to things like this.

But for all intents and purposes, the system had been adopted Underworld-wide by the entirety of the Devil race, and gave a definitive 'day and night cycle' to Devil Society which was as bound to the Curse of Morpheus as their Human counterparts. A tangential research spree revealed was because of the Four Satans (not the original ones, they'd been dead for a long time by then) had pushed for to maximize slave productivity so they would not have to let their guard down against the forces of Heaven and actually demilitarize.

It had been a fascinating read, as was the usual case when learning about all the unique aspects of Devil Society, but he digressed, it was neither the time nor the place to delve into such topics.

Yes, especially since he had an amazing recovery that'd had him feeling amazing as soon as he'd awoken, his rest allowing his natural regeneration to fix his injured leg to perfect condition with only a small scar to show for the aftermath even as it washed away his exhaustion into nothing. That was not even mentioning how clearly he could think now that he had slept off that slowly-creeping mental exhaustion.

Honestly, he'd been expecting a horrible headache when it was all said and done, he was not stranger to such mental exhaustion before his rebirth and whenever he did things that led to such a state it would usually mean a painful migraine was in store for him in the future. He'd chalked it up to just another positive on the endless list that came from his plainly superior existence.

He could honestly get used to the sheer clarity a full "night's" sleep had provided him even if it had cost him a (figurative) night, which he could have used for more productive things had it not been for his exhaustion.

Not something he would consider now though, seeing as he to attend to more pressing matters and such tangents were better left for another time.

And what better time to attend to those pressing matters than to do it right now? Right as everyone inside of the Estate was sleeping and would not be interrupting his brooding time for some time. Valuable time which he could use to chart his future, now that he had a clearer head in which to grasp the full potentials of the revelations he'd learned during his first foray into the social life of a Devil.

And it pointed to the sheer magnificence of a clear mind that it had not taken him long to find not just one, but several ways in which to take advantage of everything that yesterday had provided him with.

First of all, there was actually no need to confront his mother about her significant delaying his training into Star Shaper. While it would remain a sore point that would mar his otherwise favorable view of her, there was no need to jeopardize what little training he was going to get from her now that she had actually bothered to do provide him with some, that he'd managed to crack a significant secret of his birthright by himself would only work in his favor now that he could train it during his own time and not be limited to his mother's constant supervision whenever he wanted to do so.

It would need to be hidden of course, but he was already thinking of ways to get around that particular limitation.

It tied itself directly to his second order of business, that of pure self-reliance. That ordeal had revealed that he needed to take charge of his own future now that it was revealed that even those closest to him might not have his best interests at heart, even if they were doing it out of some misguided sense of affection and protectiveness. The relaxed way in which he conducted his training would have to go, up until now he'd been content to stifle his development by working within the confines granted to him and not going out of his way for better quality. Trainers who held back, dummies that would only go so far, libraries that had likely been pruned of anything deemed too 'dangerous' before he was granted access, techniques that had to be held back because he was forbidden from damaging any walls...

It went on and on, and he had ignored it up to the point where it was apparent that continuing on this path may have dealt his future irreparable damage had he not realized it and let it continue until deliberately stifling his true potential just became a second nature. This had been made all too clear by what he had witnessed yesterday, where even with him getting caught off-guard and being so out of his element, he'd come out on the top bracket of his age-group, and he knew that he could become more if he just put some more effort into it.

If he pushed himself as far as he could go now, _it **would** be his salvation in the future._

Even that was not all...

He knew he'd been sheltered, just because of some disease he'd almost died from when he'd been born. It had caused him to fall behind on forming a connection to his peers, and it was only luck that had saved him from being a complete outsider, the good impression he'd made on Ajuka had been his unknowing lifeline into Devil Society that he'd by some divine luck had managed to springboard from, leading to a series of events that had ended with him melting the head of a Dragon and likely cementing his place as a powerful ally to be had in just one day.

That was sure to invite attention, both good and bad. Good, because he certainly wasn't going to lack people wanting to have him on their side, and bad because some people may just decide that they didn't like how much of a threat he posed and may decide that disposing of him was a good tactic, not to mention that the more morally flexible (which is something that could be applied to a majority of Devils) may just decide to nip the burgeoning threat he posed in the bud.

The upper-echelons of Devil Society was a place that made the intrigues of Europe look like nothing more than a playground where a bunch of toddlers were pulling each other's hair. It wasn't like he didn't know that and comprehend what he needed to do to come out on top, and as much as he disliked having to realize those means he would have to resort to if he was to wade into the waters of the 'Great Game' and come out on top in the not-so-distant future, he'd nevertheless decided to do so because he was adamant on making his mark in this mad world.

If that meant he would have to work all the harder to rid himself of the values he'd once cherished?

_So be it..._


	12. Chapter 12: Going Forward

**We have entered the part of the story where I start to fast-forward until we reach our desired destination, because I believe we have reached a solid middle-point when it comes to this point of the story and spending more time with our MC still being a child might be a little detrimental to the flow of the story I have planned.**

**The passage of time will be random, but I will be giving a few indications as to just how much time has passed in between whenever I can. I must also mention that this does not mean I will be going full steam ahead to the Civil War, we still have a significant amount of time until we reach that point of the story.**

**This middle period, which will cover Alaric's (re-)growth into adulthood is the first phase of this story where I really encourage Omake's. Since I will only be covering the important bits in that period, a few bits that you may want to see will inevitably have to be left behind. If you want to take some time and write a couple of paragraphs about the things you wanted to see, I would happily take that as a contribution to this story and even threadmark those that don't interfere too much with my plans as Canon for this story! (This only applies to the Questionable Questing and SpaceBattles forums, sorry FF)**

** Now, back to where we left the story off, ****Keep a close eye on this chapter, it may be subject to change soon. Why you might ask? Physics was not a subject I passed and I fear it may show in this chapter. E****njoy the read! **

**Beta Reader Search still ongoing, PM me if interested.**

* * *

_The Star Shaper_

His mother was a good teacher.

It was something he could admit without pause, seeing as she had been supervising Alaric's training ever since he'd unlocked his Star Shaper, and as far away from his true potential as he was, and as stubborn as she had been in not starting his training in their shared inheritance earlier and delaying it as much as he could, he would be the last to deny the fruits of it.

She was brutal in his training, a far cry from the loving woman that he'd known to be doting over him since his birth due to a sickly infancy, something that he'd had a hard time getting used to at first. But that brutal training she employed did well to hammer in a lot of her lessons into his head by hook or by crook, it was a regular occurrence for him to from exhaustion and pain but with a feeling of pride at what he'd managed to accomplish, but knowing how far he still had to go simply because of her presence served as a stark reminder

But as great of a teacher as she was, the means in which Davinia Vassago taught her son had a distinct lack of quality, something he'd only noticed after his little impromptu field trip.

The instruments she had provided him was were one of the first things to come to mind, since he considered the tools provided to him as important to his development as his own drive to further his training. Tools, such as the various tomes he could draw inspiration from, teachers and trainers that would push him beyond his limits, weapons that could be added to his arsenal, artifacts that could boost his power and so forth.

He couldn't exactly confirm that the library had been emptied of books that could be useful to him, seeing as he didn't want to take the chance of getting caught while investigating the matter and further endanger his training by putting himself under the increased surveillance that would certainly follow. Weapons had been something he had been provided with in droves judging by the over-abundance of them in the training yard, but he didn't need to be and expert to see that they weren't exactly of the highest quality when they kept breaking as soon as he tried to use them on something tougher than straw.

He hadn't even seen anything that could be described as an 'artifact' outside of a display that looked like it had been smothered beneath a thousand seals and more than enough wards to fry a person alive on top of that. What he had been left with, whenever he asked for one had been nothing more than little trinkets that could do nothing more than spark ineptly for a few seconds as they failed to undertake the scale of the task he'd use them for. He wouldn't be lying when he said that it was a route he hadn't and would not be considering for a long time unless he got his hands on something that could actually be of use to him.

Where the lack of quality was more obvious however, just so happened to be Alaric's Instructors.

It had been simple enough to confirm, the first thing he'd done as soon as he'd been able to reach his mother was ask her to set up a sparring match between him and a bunch of trainers just so he could warm up before she started her lessons. His mother had acquiesced after telling him to slow down and tell him about the day he'd had, something he'd provided to her after leaving out the more... 'exciting' parts of that day.

He was certain that she suspected something given that he hadn't given her a very good reason as to just why he had immediately gone to bed upon returning, but she hadn't pried into it and he'd gotten his spar.

A no-holds-barred (for his Trainers at least, he was still barred from using Star Shaper) spar where he had proceeded to wipe the floor with a trio of Devils older than he by two decades at least as his mother watched and proceeded to berate him on the openings he'd deliberately left for his Trainers. Openings that had not been capitalized on in any shape or form, which should be a very strange considering he had been told they were experts on the field the first time he'd asked his mother just why she wasn't the one sparring with him.

So either he was being told a lie, or they were deliberately holding back.

He supposed it didn't matter either way.

Because therein lay his problem, because talented as a teacher his mother may be, as skilled as she was in furthering Alaric's training while still handicapping herself to such an extent by using such low quality tools, it would be nothing compared to what she, or more correctly, _he _could achieve if his mother was training him using all of the means at her disposal.

He supposed he could see her point of view, her doting on him because of his sickly infancy was a thing he'd known well before he'd gained her as a teacher, and before he'd even realized she was crippling his training this much he'd considered it to be a hindrance at best and an outright obstacle at worst whenever her anxieties flared up in the rare moments he'd been dealt an injury. He understood it, but he refused to even consider that she might be right in doing so, not when the cost of her negligence could be his life and future.

Thankfully, he had found it out before the damage became irreparable, and was thinking of ways to counteract it before more could be done, with fruitful results might he add as well. As things stood, the only remaining thing he could learn from his mother was Star Shaper, or rather, whatever tidbits of it she deemed 'safe' enough to consider teaching him.

Which he supposed was the final nail in a coffin he'd delayed in striking for too long.

"With a power such as ours... It is easy to lose control and give in to your destructive urges. The writings of the Original Orias, my Grandfather, explain the effects of such a mistake by detailing just what happened to his spawn that humored this side of themselves." Why wasn't he surprised that his mother had started his lessons by detailing just how dangerous their bloodline was even though she'd already been telling him about it for more than five years? "It should tell you all you need to know when you see that it was Marin the Spark that went on to become the Marquess instead of her elder brothers, Lucigon the Comet-Eater or Ventin Starbane."

He was aware of both of those names, seeing as it was a part of his extensive research into the Great War and the shared family name between theirs and his mother interested him enough to spend some time researching what happened to them.

Not pretty, as one might have guessed.

Lucigon had perished after getting himself into an engagement, where the collateral damage that resulted from the reckless use of his power had caused more casualties to his own allies than against his own enemies, something he'd paid dearly for when those allies decided to test out just how he could live up to his self-given moniker. Ventin on the other hand, had perished while leading his own Warband in the Balkans, at the hand of one Kokaibel 'the Star of God' who apparently also wanted to see him live up to that name after hearing the fate of his elder brother Lucigon and had burnt him to ashes by turning Ventin's very own Star Shaper against him.

_Note to self, don't give yourself a pretentious title._

"The Power we wield is akin to the Power of the Gods themselves. To be able to form and control what makes a Star, a force of nature so completely beyond the comprehension of most beings, to be able to shape this enigmatic energy to your will when most cannot even look upon it without being blinded... It is not something to be underestimated, it is not something to be done frivolously."

He ran a hand through his lengthening hair as he adjusted his position on the stool he was sitting on, his mother standing right in front of him as she demonstrated the very basic form of their power. Her hand was completely enveloped by an ever-shifting stream of golden energy, a volatile one that kept trying to lash out and would have been much more dangerous had his mother not had such a stranglehold on it.

It could become so much more of course, his mother's understanding of the matter was limited by how she had been thought it was nothing more than a 'volatile energy that constituted a star' for the better part of a millennia. This had some measure of truth into it, but that truth had never been expanded on ever since the Original Orias got himself killed at the Gates of Rome and left behind only an unfinished manuscript that was taken as gospel by his descendants who refrained from being as experimental with their power as he was due to his strong emphasis on caution.

His grandmother had only made a token effort in furthering their understanding of that 'enigmatic energy', which would be laughable to any proper scholar who read through the rambling addition to a manuscript that was shaky enough already. This meant that no one else had the advantage he had in discovering how easily the near perfect manipulation of plasma translated to fields that involved that same state of matter...

It was an advantage Alaric had no intention of relinquishing.

The hand which was not being used to wield an energy field gestured him to rise to his feet, which he did so promptly. "Now... I want you to call on that power, do as I am doing." The golden energy enveloping her other hand shrunk until it was only hugging her hand instead of covering her whole arm. "Keep it shackled to yourself, and do not let it escape."

She didn't seem to expect much, which was particularly infuriating seeing as she was the reason for any perceived weakness he had. The look on her face was leaning more towards a mix of worry and alert caution, and he would be a fool to miss the tenseness in her stance, looking like she might jump in any minute if something happened to go wrong...

Which was why Alaric would take immense pleasure in seeing the shocked look on his mother's face when his hand suddenly flared up with the same energy that hers had, nearly identical to the same one he'd used when he'd come face to face with that Dragon. It was an overpowering feeling that surpassed even that moment of naive pride he'd had when his mother had told Alaric that she would take over his training...

That wasn't to say that there wasn't any suspicion of course, he had just accomplished something that may have taken her entire weeks to do properly without even breaking a sweat, it was very much impossible for her not to suspicious even with him being labeled as a prodigy. One might think that he was an idiot for drawing that suspicion in the first place, seeing as making her underestimate his abilities was something he was very much capable of, but there was a method to this madness...

Mostly, it banked on the notion that his mother attribute his sudden jump in competence in the power she had forbidden the usage of, to him breaking that restriction and going against her wishes entirely. Seeing as the actual truth of the matter was him 'somehow' knowing the fundamental basics of their power despite having only used it in exceptionally rare moments until that very day he took an invitation to the Gremory Estate, and using that knowledge to suddenly bypass several _years_ of training in it, was a very rational thing for him to rely on this fact to get what he wanted out of this, even if it might delay some of his plans by inviting greater attention to himself.

It was hard to tell if he'd succeeded by the scowl on her face though, even if he was thankful that his mother wore her emotions on her sleeve when it concerned him, it made things much easier.

"You seem to have grasped the basics of it rather quickly," He knew he was in for a lot of pain the moment those words left her. "We'll be proceeding then, though you should disabuse yourself of the notion that you will be accomplish the rest as easily as this," He was fortunate that he'd thought to let the plasma gathered up in his hand dissipate as his mother's hand clamped on his shoulder with an iron grip, her fears of him losing a hand would be a reality in that case. "I will make sure of it."

Well, that confirmed that he'd been successful.

He had confirmed that his mother would be taking his training seriously, _even if_ that was because she wanted to punish Alaric for having the audacity to 'Train Star Shaper' without her giving him permission, her usual protectiveness would likely come in to play since she surely wouldn't want to see her son get hurt from 'improvised, shoddy and dangerous techniques' he'd been no doubt teaching himself out of her sight.

He still believed that the 'Star' aspect of his inheritance would be taking somewhat of a backseat with him putting a greater emphasis on his knowledge of Plasma instead of solely the former, but he'd always believed that it wouldn't hurt to be trained by someone with centuries more experience than he, even if she watered down her training out of some misplaced worry.

So he just smiled, and prepared his body for the upcoming hard time.

"I am looking forward to it."

* * *

_Personal Protection_

"You are sure, little lord?"

"Yes, but it will require you to keep the materials with you until I can acquire them."

The somehow fat, slimy looking Devil in front of Alaric nodded rapidly before mentioning toward a group of slaves who somehow managed to look more decrepit than he and his 'General Store'. "You three! Move your useless rears and get this to the Midget!" He warbled as he practically threw the formerly organized roll of paper which held the materials Alaric had requested from him toward them. "Don't you ever think about losing it, or I'll use your hide to make myself a new cape!"

It was a sign of how far he'd gotten that he didn't let his feelings show on his face when faced with such a pathetic specimen of his race, watching as the trio of wretches scampered off of the building, "They looked like they would collapse any minute, will they get the job done? I don't have to tell you how displeased I will be if I have to compile such a list again."

The different kind of Wretch that stood across from him certainly didn't like how he was being threatened by a child, but kept his mouth shut simply because that child could erase his existence by simple virtue his higher blood. "Of course they will, little lordship!" He simpered, "They might not like much, but I bought those three straight from the Pens of Styx!" Its stock is famed for their endurance!"

"They are indeed..." He said as he remembered the nightmarish things he'd read on that subject. His next words were accompanied by a carefully cast field that made sure no one could eavesdrop on his next words. "Rest assured that you will be rewarded accordingly to your service, especially if you keep quiet about any additional purchases, present or future." He kept his eyes straight on the watery ones of the man known as 'Grobe the Red Merchant' someone who thoroughly lived up to the bloated images that one envisioned whenever they spoke his name, but someone who Alaric had to deal with if he wanted to get the things he needed. "Are we in agreement?"

Grobe looked to be hesitating, "You say that I will be watched?"

Alaric just sighed, "Yes, comes with the territory when dealing with Pillar Children." He didn't elaborate on that further, but he did make a show of dismissing the subtle seal that made sure his escort couldn't listen in, something the Greasy Merchant had no doubt noticed. It was a natural, if a little annoying addition that had came with him acquiring permission to tour the city whenever he wished, since his parents obviously could not allow him to go around Lucifaad without someone to guard him.

He was still trying to find someone loyal enough to not report his every move to them, but he had a feeling that the search was coming to an end...

That didn't seem to bring any comfort to Grobe however, how fortunate for his health that he had thought to apply the silencing barrier he'd dismissed a moments prior before raising his concerns, "With all due respect, little lord-" _I was waiting for him to say that, _"I am taking a big enough risk by giving you those Tomes, if anything goes wrong, it will be _my_ neck on the block."

He wished that were so, but that would also mean he would not be able to get what he needed and would be in serious trouble with his family... "As far as everyone is concerned, I'm just making a purchase from someone who has access to rare materials." He quietly got up and dusted the coat he'd gone through great pains to have made and looked at the still seated Grobe with a smile that did not reach his eyes. "I understand that you have spent a lot of time cultivating your... '_Reliable'_ reputation, you can be certain that I would be the last person to compromise that."

"As long as I do what you want, am I right?"

"Quite so..." He said as he grabbed the bag that carried the Tomes that held some _interesting_ knowledge, before sending a small look to his disgusting provider. "Good Day." He nodded before turning on his heel and leaving, ignoring the muttered cursing from Grobe ('_It's always the same, I swear...'_) and mentally checking a list he'd complied about things that might help with his survival as he stepped outside. He took a moment to take in the breathtaking view of Lucifaad before finally turning to the tall man who approached him.

"I trust you have found what you were looking for, Sire?" Tharn, a 'silent but deadly' type that his parents had chosen to accompany him to the City, he had learned some things about the tall, black haired man from similar ventures to the one he had now, the most important of those being that the Guard was very willing to let his silence work for Alaric's needs, much more so than his other fellows.

"Yes, I must thank you for your recommendation Tharn, he had all that I required and more."

"I was merely performing my duties, Sire."

Alaric nodded with satisfaction as the man immediately fell into step after saying that, his silence doing wonders for his mood that had taken a small downturn dealing with that slime Grobe as he began the trek toward the Vassago Estate.

Not a word had been said about just what was inside the bag he certainly didn't have when he'd entered that store.

* * *

_The Path to Success_

Alaric sat up in his bed.

It was a particularly late hour, a designated one that ensured that essentially no one in the Estate other than the Guards were awake.

He quickly threw the covers off of him and made for his wardrobe, quickly dressing himself in a functional set of clothes as silently as he could. It didn't take long for him to tie the final knot on his clothes, after which he immediately made for the door and rested his ear on it, closing his eyes and extending his senses forward to make sure no one was particularly close to his room.

Satisfied, he quickly retreated on both accounts and took a deep breath.

_I'm way more excited about this than I should be..._

He took a moment to calm his nerves, before raising his hand and casting a barrier around the room that would make sure no one would hear the commotion he was going to cause in a moment.

That done, he quickly straightened up and made his posture as straight as possible.

He closed his eyes.

_Destination, Determination, Deliberation._

It was nothing more than a faint memory these days, a passage from a book he'd enjoyed during his first childhood that he wasn't even sure would even exist during this one... But it had popped into his head one day, and had refused to leave his head until he'd finally given up and decided to give it a try at the heat of the moment, something he would be regretting a few seconds later.

How could he not? When he felt himself being compressed by a great force, taking his breath away and not allowing him to take any more. It was a thoroughly unpleasant that fully made him believe that he had just gotten himself killed.

Then... It stopped.

He opened his eyes, and found himself in a familiar looking clearing.

In front of him was a similarly familiar Dragon Corpse.

_I did it._

He couldn't restrain himself, a joy filled "FUCK YES!" emerging from him as he indulged his childish side.

_I just fucking apparated!_

It took him a while to calm himself down, but he did manage it.

He had business to attend to after all...

* * *

**Well? How was it?**


	13. Chapter 13: Above and Beyond

_...Socializing?_

"Have you seen them?"

Alaric forced himself to look away from the table that had been stocked full of various beverages that he was pretty sure had some amount of alcohol hidden within them when Ajuka addressed him, shooting a questioning look at his friend who subtly indicated over to the center of the ballroom, a place where he had been avoiding like the plague from the moment he'd been directed here by their hosts while his family was escorted to a greater ballroom where all the Pillar Nobility and a few special additions were mingling without having to deal with their children.

The first thing he'd concluded upon directing his gaze in that direction was how right he was in doing that, seeing as it wasn't exactly hard to not notice a scene made by a pair of children that looked like the very definition of the stereotypical depictions of a jock and his cheerleader arm-candy. A giant of a boy, older than he it looked like, basking in the attention that a circle of sycophants lauded him with while the girl, who looked like she was at a middle stages of adolescence vapidly hung off of his arm and made a show of giggling every time he decided to show off.

He couldn't make out any insignia's that would clue him in as to who they were, so he was quick to turn away from the scene and back to Ajuka, "Someone I should watch out for, I'm guessing?"

"Correct, they are both children of the Kings Zagan and Viné." He mentioned over to the boy, "Makthos-" He then pointed at the girl, "-and Lilith, respectively." Huh... That presented some questions, "Currently betrothed to each other, an arrangement that has been made recently." Such a match was... unusual, unprecedented even, so much so that it was a wonder alone that the other Kings had even allowed such a thing to be considered, let alone be put into action.

He made to ask Ajuka just what had brought it on, but was cut off when the commotion coming from the center intensified, a distinct sound of girly shrieking echoing through the room amidst the sound of laughter. A quick look in that direction confirmed that the sound had originated from the girl named Lilith Viné, who looked to be hiding her steaming red face in her intended's overly posh-looking coat as the boy, Makthos Zagan, laughed with his fellows.

"They certainly seem to have warmed up to each other fast, especially for such a recent match." He muttered, before shaking his head and continuing on his previous thought, "Though I wonder why it was allowed to go beyond a simple affair..." Affairs were common, especially among higher ranked Devils. For the scion of an Ultimate Class family that had particularly looser morals for a member of Devilkind, their marriages were nothing more than simple guideline on just who they were supposed to have an offspring with and who they were allowed to sleep to their hearts content.

Ajuka stood silent for a moment, before leaning down to pick up a glass filled with a viscous red liquid, which Alaric strongly believed to be a mixture of blood, though he wanted to refrain from thinking overly much about just what it belonged to lest he lose his lunch. "Lord Beelzebub has practically sponsored the match, despite protests from the Great King."

"Huh..." He articulated.

They didn't talk more about the subject after that, and any possible continuation was interrupted with the arrival of Serafall and Falbium, but the implications that resulted from it would stay in the forefront of his mind for the duration of this little shindig.

* * *

_Home Base_

Alaric's fist, enveloped in a blinding flash that looked like it was sucking the light out of the very air, collided into the unprotected face of a grotesque looking canine.

The Once-Fearsome Beast, having been put through the wringer for long enough that it would never be able to properly function again even if it somehow escaped its current predicament, expired immediately when the super-heated limb caved through any resistance its body could offer, leaving behind nothing but a battered corpse that barely resembled what it once had been.

Alaric sighed with upmost satisfaction as he shook his hand to relieve it of its very faint numbness, a condition that had once left him unable to even move his arm when he had first used his power to its fullest potential just some weeks ago, but had since been able to rapidly overcome ever since his mother began tutoring him and he started to push himself even harder with his training.

He could not say that he was not satisfied with the results...

He shot only a brief look at the mangled corpse he had just created, -noting with no small amount of relief that it had also gotten easier to stand the sight of the more mutilated bodies he left behind- extending his senses forward as his eyes raked through the thick treeline to make sure that there weren't going to be any unwanted surprises the moment he dropped his guard.

Once he was satisfied that nothing was going to do so, he quickly withdrew his senses and examined his surroundings now that most of the things distracting him had been shown the error of their ways.

The part of the forest he was on was pretty secluded; a moderately sized clearing that had managed to come out relatively flat and barren considering its location, sandwiched between the base of a steep cliff that was also a part of a mountain range that was large enough to cover almost half of this gigantic forest and the aforementioned trees that did an excellent job in obstructing the clearing from view.

It looked like a secluded location from just the general unmolested look of the place, though he was knew there was bound to be some critters that frequented this place, seeing as this was a forest and _of course a forest _would have critters, even if those critters had more in common with scavengers than they had with what one would call critters above-ground, they had most likely ran away the moment they had heard the signs of his explosive entrance.

He absentmindedly waved a hand and willed the corpses that were littering the formerly pristine environment to be thrown back into the forest and out of his sight. With that done, he moved deeper into the clearing and stopped as soon as he reached the center.

He had an idea...

He ran a hand through his hair as he cleared his mind and took a deep breath as he examined the entire clearing from a different perspective, this time with an entirely different intention as to just what he was looking for. In his head, several images of the same clearing with entirely new additions that would be his doing flashed, and it continued doing so until he was sure that the possibilities of just what he could accomplish if he were to take the plunge were endless.

So he let out the breath he was holding and grinned and got to work.

_Looks like I just found myself a new sandbox..._

* * *

_Asset Procurement_

"Sire."

Alaric looked up from the book he was reading when Tharn addressed him, the Silent Guard bowing when their eyes met. A quick look up and down revealed that the man had just returned from his assignment.

"Welcome back..." He muttered as he closed the book he was reading, one of his more recent purchases from Grobe that detailed how the Turkic Shamans had almost perfectly adapted their wild magic to that of God and his descendants as they increasingly turned to him for worship during their rampage of the Near East, a fascinating read. "Has anyone given you trouble?"

Tharn shook his head, "My permanent assignment to you has given more leeway than I would have had otherwise," Something to keep in mind, it had not been easy to convince his family to make Tharn's assignment as his bodyguard permanent, might as well take full advantage of it. "And the Merchant has lived up to your expectations and has managed to procure everything you have asked from him, I have personally delivered the item to your chambers."

"Good." Alaric muttered as he quickly shrunk the book to a more manageable size and tucked it into a secure pocket, rising to his feet and waiting for Tharn to fall into step behind him as he strolled out of the library, shooting a look at the servants that crowded the area and making sure they were well out of earshot before asking. "And has he said anything about the note I've asked you to deliver?" He asked,

"He said that it should not be hard to find who you are looking for, though he put an emphasis on how much it would cost to recruit those particular services and his hopes on being compensated for going through the trouble of acquiring them." Typical... Though it wasn't like he was surprised by it either, and it also wasn't as if he didn't have what he was sure the man wanted.

A cut of the spoils, it wasn't everyday that one got to work with a Dragon's corpse after all...

Though... "It would be a shame to part with such a treasure..."

He knew he made the right choice when Tharn didn't even blink an eye when responding, "Grobe has powerful friends Sire, but none that would mourn him enough to want to avenge him should he suddenly disappear, certainly not enough to cross someone of your standing." That meant he didn't have any customers from a notable Pillar family, so he would be in the clear should he choose to move against the sleazy merchant.

He put that thought aside for now, he still needed the man until he could get him into contact with the person who would be helping him make something useful out of the corpse of that Dragon. His only notable action toward it had been its painful relocation to his new base of operations, the wards he'd put around the place to made sure no unwanted guests would be aiding in the further degradation of a corpse that had stubbornly resisted it thus far.

Well... Aside from the hole Alaric had torn through its head, but you get the point.

"No use in making him paranoid until I have what I need." He said, catching Tharn's silent nod from the corner of his eye as he rounded the corner. The man still hadn't asked just what he had requested from Grobe, which was fortunate for his new job because he certainly wasn't going to risk his current arrangements by entrusting such a a big secret to someone whose unquestioned loyalty to solely Alaric was still questionable.

Even the note he'd given him on the matter had been a special order from Grobe that would only show its message at the hands of a specific person who had a 'key' to reveal it, his... business partner having gotten the idea when the correspondence had gotten more and more frequent and he had to send Tharn a lot more to compensate for the times he couldn't exactly deal with it.

He was perfectly comfortable in not extending that thread of trust between his bodyguard and he any further than where it currently was, just as much as he was comfortable with not severing it completely. If his new guard was indeed betraying what little trust he put in him and singing everything he did in his presence back to his parents, whatever he said to them would just be taken as simple delinquency simply because he wouldn't have any proof to present to them beyond a few books and a couple of magical items whose presence could easily be explained now that his interactions with other Pillar Children was happening at a more frequent rate, and it wasn't as if that trait was lacking in _Devils._

He wasn't the first one defy his parents to such an extent, and he certainly wouldn't be the last.

But he couldn't risk his part in the death of a Dragon to get out into the open, that would bring about the abrupt end of his new and very fruitful arrangement and he could comfortably say that it was the last thing he ever wanted. He could trust Sirzechs' friends to not divulge of it, they had been a tight-lipped bunch and the details of their little trip and their involvement in it would mean they would also be in the line of fire, but Tharn was still a new factor that he was just beginning to get used to.

That said, he quickly waved away Tharn, dismissing him as he rounded the corridor that led to his room, slipping in and quickly closing it before focusing his whole attention on the package on his bed.

It was a long and thin parcel made out of polished dark wood, a quick inspection of it did not reveal anything out of the ordinary, but he was not paying that much attention to it anyway...

He ripped it open and couldn't help the smile that slowly overtook his face.

Inside the box was a mass of concentrated steel, that took the shape of a bow that was even taller than Alaric, accompanied by a a single arrow and a simple detached bowstring to complete the image. The bow itself was engraved with elaborate runes that had been handpicked by him and were just waiting for magic to flow into them so they could burst into life. It was quite simply the most beautiful object he'd seen yet...

It had been a simple idea at the start, and that idea had snowballed until it had become an avalanche that finally led up to this moment. He had already been using bows to help with his concentration training, and he knew how fragile they were with how easily they broke if he put too much stress on them, the obvious leap of logic from there had been to wonder just what would happen if there had been a bow that could handle the superhuman strength of a Devil?

Of course, he didn't have any illusions that he could even slightly affect the monster across from him until he was much, much stronger... A foreseeable side effect from having it be made out of supernatural metal by a Dwarf that had been the master of his craft, but at the current rate of his power growth? He didn't have doubts that he would be able to wield this masterpiece...

Until then?

It was something to aspire to, and simply a beginning for his non-magical arsenal.

"Happy Birthday..."


	14. Chapter 14: Benefits of Socializing

_A Predicament._

The Dragon was starting to smell...

Alaric had noticed the first noticed it when hew as carrying its invaluable corpse to his new base of operations. Having to magically levitate the corpse due to the rather unwelcome revelation about his Apparition not being able to transport such a large entity, a foul stench that had gone as fast as it had come when the Dragon was pried from the place it had died on.

He'd chalked it up to the hundreds of other corpses that still lined the clearing and had cleansed the air around him before going about his business. That he'd had to deal with more than usual amounts of critters on his way to his clearing had not occurred to him, seeing as his continued training was rapidly making sure those beasts were nothing more than nuisances and the only thing that had made him break a sweat was continuously levitating a heavy as fuck Dragon.

..._Was there_ such a thing as working on your telekinetic muscles? He'd have to check.

Getting back on track.

A couple of days was all it took for Alaric to find out that the source of the foul smell had followed him, and that its source was the Dragon that he'd killed. It had finally started to show signs of decomposing after multiple weeks of being dead and staying in seemingly perfect condition for the entire duration of those weeks it had lain among its fellow corpses, a wonder that this had not started happening sooner, but he'd chalked it up to the magical nature of the corpse when the thought had first popped into his head.

He really should have done something about it sooner, but there was no use of crying over spilled milk.

At least its hide was still strong and as stupidly durable as it ever was, as a cursory check (read: a really hard punch that almost broke his hand but had failed to make even a dent in the dam thing) had proven, so it looked as though the insides of the Dragon were rotting. He would have to act fast to lose anymore of the valuable contents, but it seemed like his new main focus had now become to preserve its hide.

Which meant he had to deal with that bastard Grobe again. But he had a feeling that the so called Red Merchant who had already been scamming him for the entire duration of their partnership would be doing his best to rob Alaric blind when it came to something as valuable as this, which was not something Alaric was willing to consider with how useful his current haul was. Which would mean he would have to look at other avenues to get what he needed.

And cut him loose.

Should be easy, he was significantly more powerful than the man just by the virtue of his blood, the problem was getting the man to a place with no traps, where he could be dispatched with no witnesses.

_And actually doing the deed._

But that was to be the purpose of his death of course, to ease him into a life that was surely going to have it as a staple, and he'd be doing the whole world a favor by getting rid of him anyway...

Which still left him with a rotting Dragon and no obvious way of extracting useful materials out of its carcass... The library was not helpful either, full of books about how dragons were the 'fiercest beasts around' and how nothing could 'stop them from tearing everything apart' and all that rot, things like that were the exact reason he'd went to Grobe in the first place!

And he'd already established why he wasn't going to that decrepit fungus with this!

_Ugh..._

He'd come up with something, but it was turning late, and he had a lesson with his mother to get to.

* * *

_A Solution..?_

"Hello."

A quick turn of his head from his seat revealed that it was in fact Serafall Sitri's voice he'd heard, wearing a very expensive looking dress that moved five steps ahead of her because of how hellishly puffy it was.

Though he shouldn't talk, her parents weren't the only ones who had a questionable taste in children's fashion.

He'd been stuck inside of a fucking nightmare of an infinity-layered robe as soon as his parents decided to make a visit to the Astaroth Estate, having been ambushed by several maids led by his mother who had quite literally forced him through the mass of clothing. It had all happened so fast that Alaric was sure that some of his limbs had ended up in exactly the opposite hole they were supposed to go through.

And Ajuka hadn't escaped it either, his usual stoic self had taken a suffering tinge in what was a rather uncomfortable example of what passed for Outlandish Devil Fashion, garish robes lined with sharp edges of actual metal, overly large pauldrons, and uncomfortable hairstyle in all. He'd actually managed to look like the villain who tried too hard to look evil in a low budget action movie.

_Though I shouldn't talk, I look like the stereotypical evil wizard..._

He had been so sure they were punishing him for something, so hadn't questioned it even though he felt like he was dying again. But thrice was an enemy action, and he was starting to feel something was up here...

He nodded to return her greeting. Suppressing a frustrated growl as the formal robe he was wearing somehow managed to pull some strands off his long hair, before looking over her shoulder to see if their host was on her heels or not. "Your parents sent you ahead?" The sigh it caused was instantaneous, and he had his answer even before she nodded to confirm it.

"Yeah," She said as she took her seat across from him, wrestling with her dress like one would with a tiger out to tear your throat out, "They were still speaking at Ajuka when I managed to leave the room."

Not 'speaking _to_', but 'speaking _at_'...

_Poor Ajuka._

He tugged on his collar again as he tried to find another comfortable way to sit in this _goddamn_ (The sharp pain that flashed through his head was just the icing on the cake that was his suffering) straitjacket his parents had decided to imprison him in, "They are doing this deliberately..."

She snorted, "Of course, they likely found out that we went hunting and are making sure it doesn't happen."

He shook his head, this time careful of any accidents he may have with his clothing. "That explains it..." Alaric knew that his parents were aware of his 'secret' dealings of course, no amount of hubris was going to convince him that he'd managed to deceive beings centuries older than he, but he had at least tried to take refuge in audacity and hide the bigger accounts of rebellion underneath several smaller ones that were minor enough to not deserve punishment.

That little Hunting Trip had been one of the bigger ones...

He grimaced when he realized this was likely to be only the beginning.

"First time getting caught?" Serafall asked when he caught his expression, her tone full of understanding. She continued when he miserably nodded "I'd say not to worry, but I don't know how your parents handle punishments. Mine aren't exactly harsh, but that's before they learned there was a Dragon involved." _Hard to say when he hadn't done anything to deserve punishme-_

"Wait, what?!"

It was Serafall's turn to grimace.

_ohgodthey'regoingtokillme-_

"Yes... Apparently it got out when someone started asking around about how to sell a dead Dragon."

That did little to calm his growing dread, because his overprotective mother knew that he had come face to face with a Dragon.

_Fuck me..._

At least it wasn't him that got them caught...

He had been explicitly avoiding asking anyone about that, even Tharn had been left in the dark about what his intentions were and he had the man searching around for someone at least more reliable than Grobe. Which meant someone else had been aware of the value of the Dragon even though they couldn't exactly get to it like Ajuka and he could, but had tried nevertheless and had overplayed their hand in the process.

As dangerous as Pillar Children were, their parents were even more so, and they had far more ways to make your life nothing short of a nightmare should you displease them, and putting their children (especially their very precious heirs) in danger ranked pretty high on a list of just what exactly would. He wouldn't even begrudge the man if he immediately snitched on the kid.

He had a few opinions about that... "That's a new form stupid."

"I agree," Serafall said, "Which is why we are in the clear."

"Anyone in particular? I don't know much of anyone in that group."

She scoffed, one considerably less politer than what might escape from someone of their shared station, "You're better off not knowing most of them, trust me." She said while shaking her head, making him envious of her ability to do so without losing her hair like he certainly would, "Most of them are there to lick Sirzechs' boots, the only useful ones were either not there or actually did something worthwhile against that Dragon."

_That means you too, idiot._

"Thank you, I suppose..?"

_Smooth._

"Smooth." She said, almost in sync with his inner voice, although she looked far more amused than offended.

_Great..._

He was now getting teased by a girl two decades younger than he, what has his life come to?

"Anyway," She continued, apparently deciding that he'd suffered enough. "It doesn't matter who got us caught, Sirzechs says he won't let it happen again,." She rolled her eyes.

Huh... That didn't look convincing. "You don't believe him?"

"I do, but it probably means those larger gatherings are going to be even more boring."

He remembered the Dragon. "I didn't feel bored..."

"We don't exactly deal with Dragons and hordes of monsters that large do you?" She asked in a tone that made him feel dumb for even opening his mouth, "Usually Sirzechs doesn't even leave a bone to fight against, and his bootlickers eat it up."

Alaric was about to respond when he heard sounds of footsteps, which made him turn around, _calmly,_ to see who they belonged to.

It was Ajuka, looking miserably stoic in that torturous getup of his.

He marched toward them with long-steps and didn't even stop to greet them before sitting himself down right between the two. Alaric thought he'd even heard a small sigh of relief.

He sympathized.

Ajuka didn't move, or make a sound.

...Was he sleeping? "You look like how I feel after, listening to my goodbrother."

That got a response, "It's not that bad," He didn't know what he should feel with the amount of sarcasm in it.

But... Fair was fair, he acquiesced "Probably not," He would still prefer fighting that Dragon in these clothes than listen to another one of his goodbrothers lectures about his 'grand aspirations'...

Ugh...

Serafall interjected. "What did they ask about? They aren't usually cruel enough to pull something like that, not without me there to witness it at least." Parental discipline was such a charming thing when it came with a uniquely Devilish Flavor...

"They were very curious of the Dragon's whereabouts."

Serafall let out a disgusted sound. "_Ah_, should have known that's what they were going to do..."

Looks like they were not even being subtle about it, by mentioning the thing they were being punished for they had practically given the sign for the other Pillar parents dispense with the pleasantries as well. With both their punishments for their wayward children and their greed about the valuable contents that came with a Dragon's corpse, what... _Fun_.

"They were quite insistent about it, but my mother was at my side for a reason."

"Right, sorry."

"Not your fault."

He put his head in his hands and let out a low despairing groan, which earned him a pair of looks that knew perfectly the extent of his suffering "My mother is going to kill me." He could vividly imagine just what had in store for him now that everything was fair game and she had an excuse to cut loose. He was already wandering about his chances of re-reincarnating.

Serafall actually patted him on the back, her voice perfectly understanding. "Hey, at least yours aren't looking for that Dragon."

"I doubt my chances of survival if they had been." Ajuka's voice cut in, as stoic as ever.

"Yeah... But I haven't exactly been keeping a clean slate."

He could feel Serafall wince just by the hand on his back going still.

Ajuka summarized his situation perfectly.

"My condolences."

_Thanks for the vote of confidence..._

He finally lifted his head and looked them in the face, utterly certain of what he was going to say next.

"At least no one is going to have that Dragon."

That brought them short.

Ajuka spoke, cutting over whatever question Serafall might have had. "I assume you don't mean relying on my silence."

He nodded, waving a hand to cast a silencing ward around them that he had been perfecting ever since he started taking his little trips into that forest. As soon as he was certain it would hold and they would have no nasty surprised, he moved in for the kill.

"I moved it."

_Silence._

"I was expecting more of a reaction..."

Ajuka was still as stoic as ever, while Serafall was nodding.

"It makes sense..."

"You were looking at Ajuka's Circle a little intently than what's normal..."

He wasn't sulking.

_Not at all._

"So..." Serafall began, her tone a little more playful than he would have liked, "Where did you move it?"

"It stays between us?"

They both nodded, quick enough to make him suspicious.

"Give me your word then."

He knew they were actually curious about it when they did so without hesitation, the minuscule burst of magic that followed their words were followed by him divulging it's location, though he kept silent about having his own mode of teleportation, it was good to keep some secrets to oneself after all, you never know what would happen in the future...

"I should be able to get us there... _If_ you want to." He paused for a moment, before adding, "I should mention that it's starting to smell though, so it's doubtful we could get much out of it even if we find someone stupid enough to help us with it."

Serafall hummed for a moment, before turning to the green-haired genius, "Could you... Do something about that?"

Ajuka mulled those words over for a moment.

"I'll think of something..."


	15. Chapter 15: Loose Ends

Alaric groaned from his place in the newly formed dent in the wall.

"You certainly have the raw power that most of us didn't at your age..." His mother was saying, gazing at him as if he were some bug and thoroughly uncaring of his plight, "Pity that you lack the capacity to install some finesse into that horrible technique of yours." Her voice was clipped, like it had been for several hours at this point, "Do remove yourself from that wall dear, we aren't finished."

It took him a moment for him to do that, though any complaints he might have had were kept to himself lest his punishment get any worse. He also made sure that the dented wall returned itself to its original condition once he finally managed to disentangle himself from it, for obvious reasons.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he'd had to duck to avoid the beam of plasma that would have taken his head off had he been any slower. His hastily drawn up mirror/shield did well in redirecting the second one that had come after it and gave Alaric enough time to upset his mother's balance via the ground swallowing her foot and trying to sink her to her knees.

It didn't work of course, his mother was too strong for it and she shattered the tiles holding her with contemptible ease with a simple tug of her foot. But it serve as a good way of taking her focus off of him if only for a moment, which gave him enough time to scramble away from his compromising position and blast her with his own brand of Star Shaper before she could throw him into another wall.

Any hopes Alaric might have had about that were quickly dashed when his mother side-stepped the beam of pure plasma without even a scratch and raised a single hand that put a stop to any hopes of him trying again. It didn't take long for her to nail Alaric with a miniature star that would have melted through his head had his mother put any more power into it than she had and had he not flooded every bit of magic he had in him into the shield just to keep it from shattering immediately.

Even then, he was only alive because the star dissolved immediately after it shattered his shield.

The end result was the same, Alaric found himself making another Alaric-shaped dent in the wall, beyond exhausted, somewhat resentful and slightly chastised all at once as he tried to catch his breath.

"I hope you realized that not everything was going to run toward that ridiculous display like a starved, insane Dragon..." His mother said, tutting when another groan was her only answer. "Some beings actually have a brain for you to melt off. Either make that thing more precise, or make sure nothing can avoid it." She gazed at him for a moment before huffing, "Do get up my dear, we aren't finished yet."

"Yes mother..." Alaric said through gritted teeth as he tried once more to push himself off of the wall, his mind full of images on just what he would do to the rat bastard who had elected to give an extremely detailed account on what had happened in that forest, which of course had spread like wildfire and made sure everyone knew just who had managed to kill a Dragon.

Which had the effect of driving his mother mad with worry and anger, and come to the natural conclusion that she needed to take it all out on him with the weak excuse of 'training him appropriately for the amount of attention he was going to receive now'.

Alaric once again wondered if a Devil could melt...

* * *

_A Week Later_

"So... What's the damage?"

"I am certain I could be able to remove it's skin, the rotten flesh is bound to make it easier."

Alaric shot his two sort-of-friends a short glance from over his shoulder as they continued to circle the dragon's rotting carcass in an effort to make out what they could salvage from it. It seemed to be progressing well, so he left them to it for now and refocused his attention back on his current project, gazing contemplatively at the cliff face of that gigantic mountain that overlooked his clearing.

Meanwhile, Serafall and Ajuka provided a nice ambient background voice to what had been a clearing that had only really heard the inelegant conversations he had with himself when he was alone, or the dying whimpers of some monster or another that had chosen to try their luck trespassing and had gotten their just dues for it. It really made for a nicer sort of fun than the one he usually had whenever he came to this place.

Maybe he should make these field-trips more common.

Get Ajuka to invite Sirzechs too, seeing as he'd probably learned the advantage of a smaller and more manageable group in these sorts of rule-breaking outings and Ajuka would appreciate it.

"Oh, that's good." Serafall was saying through her covered nose, "Just be sure to finish it before I choke to death from its stench."

He would have liked to believe he knew Ajuka enough to detect a hint of reproach in his stoic-as-ever voice when, "We'll be here for a couple of hours at least," He chided, "Be glad we have the time."

_Hard not to be._

His mother only decided he'd had enough punishment just two days ago, and had made sure that last day of punishment was especially harsh. And after awakening from a bout of unconsciousness due to his body giving out from sheer exhaustion he was promptly informed by a thoroughly emotionless Tharn that it had simply been a warning for his 'illicit activities going too far'.

Seeing as he was still feeling the aftershocks of that warning, his mother should consider him warned.

_I need to get better at being sneaky._

But getting back on topic, finding enough time to invite both Ajuka and Serafall to his house for an 'informal gathering' and not have his parents get suspicious about what his intentions had been rather difficult. Only his assent toward having an anti-teleportation ward set up around the Estate for the duration of the visit had been enough for his request to be accepted, though it probably helped that it had been his father he'd went to ask permission to right after his mother's convenient absence for the day.

Bypassing those wards had been rather easy, because Ajuka's method of teleportation could bypass those apparently, he hadn't even had to painstakingly teach them about his own (stolen) one!

"What are you up to?"

He shot a look at Serafall, furrowing his brow for a brief moment of confusion as to how she'd gotten there without him noticing any movement, had he been too deep in thought to notice?

He coughed and schooled his expression into a neutral one before gesturing at the cliff face he was examining, "I was thinking about carving an actual shelter in there," He explained, "The clearing is all well and good but eventually I'm going to outgrow it. And I don't particularly want to give this spot up..." The last part had been said in a murmur as he turned to face Serafall again, "I thought you'd be helping Ajuka."

Her curious expression quickly turned to one of distaste as she jabbed a thumb toward where Ajuka was, "He seems to have it well in hand," Looking over her shoulder, Alaric could see that it was true, Ajuka had already begun the gory business of peeling the dragon's hide off by slicing through it's molten skull. Alaric quickly looked away from the grizzly sight.

"I couldn't stand the smell," Serafall continued, "So I came over to see what you were doing." Her tone matched the distaste on her face perfectly.

Alaric simply nodded in an understanding manner, "I can't blame you." His voice exuding sympathy gained after his own of experience of being subjected to the smell of rotting corpses (that thought didn't sound nearly as bizarre as it would have been ten years ago). He gestured once again, this time toward the cliff-face that he'd been staring at for a couple of minutes now. "You can help me with this, if you want."

He was puzzled for a moment when Serafall simply crossed her arms and _looked _at him, raised brow an all. "And what will I get out of it?" Something in her voice made Alaric feel really stupid for some reason, though that may have something to do with him forgetting he was dealing with a Devil here, receiving help without any compensation was a boon exceptionally rare amongst their kind.

Alaric mulled a couple of ideas over, resolutely ignoring the sawing and squishing sounds that were coming from Ajuka's direction. "You already know about this clearing." He finally settled on with a small shrug, "And I wouldn't say to sharing this place with you, -you _all_, I mean-" He added with a simple incline of his head in Ajuka's direction. "Would that be adequate?"

He wasn't expecting the... -_Frankly unsettling_\- grin that suddenly made its way into Serafall's face.

"That eager to have me in your... _domain?_"

It took a moment for Alaric to realize that her tone was _flirty_.

_Alaric **shuddered**._

"That wasn't the reaction I was expecting." He barely even registered Serafall's reaction as he tried to calm himself down and make peace with the fact that a ten year old girl had just _flirted with him. _If he wasn't already in hell, and if the place was actually all fire and brimstone like the Bible said it was, he would wholeheartedly believe that he'd just earned himself a reservation in one of its deepest pits.

Yeah, _no..._

Maybe when she was a decade older, and when he could actually disregard the fact that he would still have two more on her by then since they both had a lifespan that could go up to _ten-thousand_. Even if he'd actually agreed to lower his moral standards to better fit his current circumstances, but _actual fucking pedophilia_ was something he wasn't willing to touch with even a ten-thousand foot pole.

_Fucking hell._

He tried to keep his voice as flat as he could manage to make it once he'd finally calmed down enough to talk without saying something he would be regretting later, "Do you agree?"

"Yeah, _yeah_... Don't lose your head," She said with a roll of her eyes. "I was just joking."

"...I'll start the excavation," _And forget that entire spiel ever happened if that's fine with you._ "Do make sure the ceiling is supported, we don't want the whole mountain to collapse on top of us."

"Ok-_kay_, let's get on with it!"

* * *

_End Transaction_

Alaric couldn't help but relish the look of apprehension and dread that was prominent in the face of the so-called Red Merchant as he entered the decrepit store.

"_Mister_ Grobe."

"Ah, greetings your Lordship!" The disgusting man simpered as he rose from his seat and bowed with flourish that had been _so peculiarly_ absent during their previous business meetings. No doubt that it was because the man had recently come to the realization that the child in front of him, whom he'd thought to be nothing more than a gullible boy to fleece the endless funds out of, might just have been more trouble than he was worth.

That might happen to be because of the sudden, persistent rumor that had surfaced some weeks ago.

The one about the dragon, and how it suddenly happen to lose its head in the most literal manner possible...

If he was being honest, Alaric found the sudden increase in attention on himself to be more trouble than it was worth. What with the possibility of some influential people suddenly deciding that they might just prefer the growing possible thorn in their side nipped in the bud before it had a chance to become a nuisance, but he felt like he could make an exception for moments like these.

He let the figurative piece of slime keep that position for a moment before finally taking pity on the him, "You can rise Mister Grobe, I've just come to inquire the state of my most recent order."

Grobe straightened so quickly that Alaric actually thought he'd heard the man's non-existent spine creaking for a moment. "Certainly your Lordship, I was having it be cleaned by a slave, it will be be with you in but a moment!" Alaric felt, rather than saw the energy gathering in the man's palm, which he guessed to be something that kept the slaves bound to his will judging by the audible scream that soon echoed throughout the rickety building.

It didn't take long for a pathetic looking man that looked to be covered in cuts and bruises to stumble into the room, carrying with him a seemingly innocuous small wooden box that only Alaric knew to be anything but.

His attention suitably enraptured by what he knew to be in the box, he completely ignored Grobe as he started to tear into his slave for some arbitrary reason or another. He took a deep calming breath and took the box from the unfortunate slave's hands, his subsequent exhale was accompanied by him quickly getting rid of the lock that held it shut and opening it with great anticipation.

Inside of it was a very innocent looking, yet deceptively sharp knife, on its blade was a perfectly engraved rune...

Alaric frowned.

"Is...-is something not to your liking m'lord?"

He gently removed the knife from its resting place and held it in one hand and took out a black handkerchief from his pocket. "You should discipline your slaves properly Mister Grobe," He said matter-of-factly as he carefully cleaned the dusty knife with it, making sure it would regain a nice sheen that was worthy of such an expensive dagger. "I am not in the habit of tolerating such poor displays."

The man didn't waste any time, starting to grovel for forgiveness repeatedly, before having the bright idea of turning his attention to his unfortunate slave. A cruelly placed blow was all it took to send the malnourished human slave to his knees, which would quickly turn into a beating. Grobe rained down kick upon kick on the slave and rained down insults upon him simply because of a single prompting from one of his betters...

As the slave kept begging for forgiveness, and Grobe ignored his pleas and continued the impromptu beating session, Alaric was carefully vanishing the black handkerchief he'd brought with him, satisfied with the bright sheen that the knife now held.

The Scion of Vassago held the dagger in front of his face as he let his magic slowly flow into it. He watched with a critical eye as the engraved rune started glowing with an eerie red glow that made for a menacing sight when combined with the bright sheen that coated the dagger. Alaric nodded in grim satisfaction as the dagger passed his inspection.

Another deep breath was taken, and a heartbeat passed.

The knife found itself lodged in Grobe's neck.

"Your services are no longer required."

The wretched slime that wore the guise of a Devil choked on his own blood, as the poisoned magical dagger shut down anything he may use to reverse it's deadly effects. He choked some more when Alaric quickly withdrew the knife from his throat and retreated before he could make to grab at him, now rapidly bleeding out because Alaric had nicked an artery and the poison made sure his Devil physique could not naturally close the wound.

Alaric grimly withdrew another, yet more simple looking knife from his coat and tossed it to the slave who hadn't even had the time to properly register the events taking place in front of him, such was the speed that Alaric had struck...

Credit to him, the slave was smart enough to understand the opportunity given to him. Alaric did not know if he understood the consequences that might come with it, but even if the slave had, that certainly didn't stop him from accepting the knife and lunging at the dying Grobe and stabbing the fat bastard over and over again until his struggles started to die out altogether.

Alaric cast a spell to vanish the remnants of the affair that might implicate him, and simply apparated the way he came and promptly back into his room with a sharp crack of sound being the only thing to signal his exit. He left the slave to brutalize the corpse of the former Red Merchant, the indentured servant did not seem likely to stop doing that any time soon.

He grabbed a change of clothes, and went to dinner like nothing important had happened that day.

That night, his dreams turned into nightmares.

They were quick to turn back to normal...


End file.
